


Rot Your Brain

by jidubchaeng



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, Multi, This will be a slowly developing story so be patient yeah, Virtual Reality, also im gonna make yall cry, tags will be added as chapters are posted, there will be multiple ships bois, there's probably gonna be gore, youre welcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-11-14 07:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11203653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jidubchaeng/pseuds/jidubchaeng
Summary: Virtual reality allows you to live through experiences impossible IRL. So why is Son Chaeyoung so stressed out while playing the latest VR game Paracosmos? Maybe because the only reason she's playing is because her best friend Myoui Mina has become a feared tyrant in the fictional country within, killing any players that try to take her down. Maybe because Chaeyoung has never played a single video game in her life? Or could it be because the seven other players that can help Chaeyoung level up and stop Mina can’t even get along with each other for five minutes?





	1. Level 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Come Back Home](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/299898) by 2ne1. 



> Here's a fic where Chaeyoung accidentally fucks up Mina's VR headset, has to go into a whole new world and fix her mistake. Enjoy~

I stood in front of a booth in the convention center, taking in all of the geeks and gamers running around trying to buy as many expensive souvenirs as they could. You could hear the excited chatter of people staring at all the cool displays the staff had set up the day before and all of the screeches from excited cosplayers as they saw others that were dressed up as a character from the same franchise.

It was nice, but it smelled of sweat and plastic everywhere you went. I'd already been there for an hour and I had no luck getting used to the scent.

“Mina, how long are we going to be here? It smells like someone got their hands on, like, concentrated loser scent and sprayed it everywhere.”

My best friend Mina laughed and grabbed my hand. “I hope you remember that these are my people, Chaeyoung. We all share weird passions that are looked down upon by society. Don’t insult them.” She pretended to be offended, but her mock serious face cracked when she caught a glimpse of my expression. 

“Don’t make that face! Someone has to stand up for the losers! Speaking of, do you think I smell like a loser?” She pretended to sniff herself. “I swear I showered this morning…”

I was accompanying Mina on her quest to find a certain game that had caught her eye at another dorky showcase last year, and though I told myself I was only here to please her, I had to admit that it was cool to see all these people have a place to gather and freely geek about their passions. 

It still reeked though, and for that reason I wanted to get out of that place ASAP.

“Of course not, Penguin. You always smell like your cinnamon-scented shampoo. It just stinks here. Let's go and find the booth with your game. We have to go to work tomorrow to pay the rest of the bills, remember? We gotta leave early or else we’ll be home late and be much too exhausted to go work the next day.”

“Of course, Chaeyoung. I promise I'll check the game out and then we can leave immediately!” She gripped my hand tighter and started leading me to where the booth was supposed to be. It wouldn't be too hard to find, since there were many signs pointing to it. It was a big deal, apparently.

“Oh, I never told you about the game! According to the early reviews, it takes advantage of the latest virtual reality technology to make you feel as though you're really in the fantasy world, Chaengie! Of course, that's just if you’re really immersed. You have to control the game with a controller, so I’m sure there will be people that will know they’re not really in the game. I’m sure I’ll feel like I’m actually there, though. I do that already with games that aren’t even VR, so imagine what it’ll be like when I turn my head and see a whole world behind me!’

I rolled my eyes. “What if you're fighting a giant troll or something and it catches you? You’re gonna see its ugly face in 1080p HD, and when it kills you, you'll probably think your actual head is gonna be busted open.” Mina frowned at the thought of her skull being crushed.

I continued my train of thought. “I'd rather videogames stay the way they are because I like my pants nice and dry, thank you very much.” I grimaced and thought about getting your head smashed in the middle of a boss fight and consequently soiling yourself. None of that sounded pleasant at all.

Mina rolled her eyes and seemed like she was going to say something witty but we finally got to the area where the game was being showcased, so instead she turned to me and poked my arm.

“Oh, hey. Do you wanna play too, Chaeng? It's free to check it out! It's a massive multiplayer online game, so you and I can play together and see if it's as cool as the early reviews have been saying~” Mina gave me a charming smile, making my heart grow two sizes. “I want you to see for yourself how cool virtual reality can be, babe!”

Her calling me babe made my knees buckle, so I had to catch myself on her shoulder. “S-sorry, Mina. You know I don't like games that much. P-plus I'll look like a newbie in front of all these gamers. That's too embarrassing for me, so I'll just wait around for you, yeah?” I stammered the entire time, still reeling at the thought that she called me such an intimate nickname.

Mina didn’t notice. She just pouted cutely. “C’monnnn. Maybe this game can change your mind and finally convince you to play with me!” She got really close to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her face got closer and closer to mine until I could feel her breath on my lips. My breath hitched. She was close. So close, in fact, that I could kiss her if I leaned in just a little. 

But I was confused. Why was she so close to me? There was no way there was a heterosexual explanation for this. She was either gay or she was just fucking with me.

“Please Chaeng?” she whispered.

“Hey hey, I already said no,” I whispered back, not moving. I wasn't sure what Mina was doing, since this was completely out of character for her, but I was enjoying it. I was so desperate for some skinship, I didn't even give a shit if she was messing around with my feelings.

People were staring, though, so tentatively, I unwrapped her arms from my neck. “I really don't want to...babe.” I hoped to sound calm and cool and not as cringey as I felt as I said that. “Go on ahead. I'll watch the screen and see what you're looking at in the game. I'll silently cheer you on, okay? Mina, fighting!”

She smirked at my reply and nodded before turning away. From behind her back she said “You're a cutie, Chaengie.” It made me smile like SUCH a dork.

“I'll be back in about two hours or so.”

That smile went away the second she told me how long she'd be playing. Two hours? Why would she need that long for a little test run? I walked after her, planning to demand a shorter time. When I got there, she had already sat down on one of the chairs and placed the headset on. I tapped her shoulder, trying to get her attention.

“Mina? Mina please don't take too long. What will I do by myself for two whole hou--”

“Whoa, hey! Don't do that! That’s dangerous, kid!”

I jumped three feet into the air at the unfamiliar voice and quickly turned to see an older man standing over me. I stood up straight and stuttered out an apology, not completely sure what I had been doing wrong, and not completely sure he understood any of the apology as well.

“Whoops! Looks like I almost gave you a heart attack! I really didn't mean to scare you, kid. I just wanted to warn you about disturbing players while they're in Paracosmos.”

“Paracosmos? What's that?” I was still stunned by the man’s booming voice, so I didn’t understand what he was referring to. 

“The game that your friend is playing right now! It’s called Paracosmos,” he said proudly, “and I’m overlooking the development for the game.” He shook my hand and introduced himself.

“The name is Park Jin-young. JYP for short. I’m the head of JYP Entertainment, or JYPE, the world’s leading mobile and home video game publisher. What might your name be, miss?”

“Park Jin-young?” I repeated without thinking, pleasantly surprised to see a fellow Korean in an unexpected place. Most of the people I saw in the convention were white.

“Sooo we have the same name, huh? I like it’” He laughed at his own joke and patted my back really hard. “Sorry, sorry, I had to make that joke. What is actually your name, kid?”

“Son Chaeyoung, Mr. JYP. Pleased to get to know that a fellow Korean is so successful in the video game industry!”

JYP grinned gleefully. “Do you like video games, Chaeyoung?”

“No,” I replied, feeling bad when I saw his smile fade a bit, “I don't. I'm just here with my friend over there. She begged me to accompany her here to see how this game was. She seems to be a fan of your work.”

“Oh, this is your friend? I’m glad she likes what my company is working so hard on! By the way, I'm sorry I interrupted you earlier. It's just that...right now the stage of development Paracosmos is in makes it quite dangerous for a person to interact with a player within it.” He tapped a nearby sign that warned me of the same thing.

CAUTION: DO NOT DISTURB. MAY CAUSE INTERNAL PROBLEMS, MILD TO SERIOUS BRAIN DAMAGE TO PLAYERS, AND SERVER ISSUES. 

“I've been working on that problem for a while now, but for some reason I can't ever seem to find the right solution.” He must have seen the worried look on my face because he added “But, ah, no worries! This game is in no way finished. This is basically just a demo showing how much progress we’ve made since the last time it was on showcase. By the time the official launch date is announced, we will have figured it out. My team and I will make it so that it will be safe to touch the player and remove the helmet at any time.” You could see the sweat form on his forehead. Was he admitting too much for his own comfort?

“That sounds like a really huge, uh, bug. What kind of problems will interrupting players cause? Will there really be serious damage to the brain if we touch the players? And what else will removing the helmet do to the one wearing it?” I was probably asking too many questions, but I wanted to know what was wrong with the game. If it wasn't a good idea to let Mina get it, I'd have to have facts back me up, or else her stubborn self would ignore me and play anyways. I had to convince her that living was more important than permanent brain damage.

JYP scratched his chin, obviously uncomfortable with telling me details of the defects of his creation. After a couple seconds, though, he decided to share them with me. 

“Well, we've had testers say that the sensation of someone touching them in real life caused the game to lag and get buggy for some reason. A lot of them got extremely nauseous. Some got a little aggressive in-game, which is what we suspect might be mild brain damage, or something like it. Obviously those things are not what my company wants for our players, so we've been working on it. Uh… and about the removal of the helme-”

JYP interrupted himself when he noticed a very young child trying on a headset. “H-hey, kid stop! The game demo is rated T for Teen! Where are your parents?” JYP sprinted towards the kid at full speed, not bothering to dismiss himself.

“See ya…” I said to the spot here was at only moments ago. 

I sat down in the chair closest to Mina and tried to relax, but I couldn't. I was too stressed out about what I had just learned. I didn't want my best friend to play a buggy game that could do all of that simply because someone touched her, but if JYP promised that his game would be near flawless by the release date, then surely there'd be no problem. She wouldn't be very happy if I told her that I thought it was a bad idea to get it. 

Yeah. I definitely had to get her the game. I could imagine Mina’s adorable smile as she started up the game with her headset on. She had a precious smile that I'd take a thousand bullets for…

My mind began to wander. I reminisced about our high school days, where we became the best of friends, practically inseparable, after we were assigned as partners for our chemistry class. As the only two asian girls in our 9th grade year, we had to stick together and help each other fight the racist, sexist and dumb bullies.

When we entered 11th grade, I finally accepted myself as a lesbian, and that I had a hardcore crush on Mina. She never dated anyone while in school, so there was no way to know if she was sapphic as well. I was too afraid that if she happened to like me back and we dated, we’d eventually break up and become distant. I didn't want that to happen at all. I want to be friends with Mina for as long as I live, so I kept silent.

Even though three years had passed since graduation, those feelings never faded away in the slightest. When we started living together as roommates upon graduation, we grew even closer in our small apartment.

Before I knew it, two hours passed by. Mina was crouched in front of me, trying to wake me from my daydreams. 

“Hey! You there? Come back from Chaengland…” She shook me until I responded.

“Oh, hey? Sorry. How long have you been crouched there?” I shook my head, forcing my brain to wake up completely. “Nevermind. Uh, how'd it go? Did you have fun?”

“It was so cool, Chaengie!” She jumped to her feet and pulled me up, excited to share her experience within the game. I wasn't sure what half what she told me meant, but she was excited about the game and that was all that was important to me.

“I'm glad you're happy, Mina.” I quickly kissed her forehead, unable to resist doing so after seeing her act so adorably.

“I guess that forehead kiss means you missed me? What a cutie… I love you, Chaeyoung!” She did a lil happy dance while wearing a dorky grin.

“Oh hey, we can leave now, Chae. I got to play the game, so we’re done here! Let’s go!” She grabbed my hand once more and led me out of the smelly convention center.

*****

Approximately three months later, Paracosmos was finally released at midnight.

It was raining that night, the wind gently rattling my window. It was relaxing to hear a repetitive sound like that, so I fell into a deep sleep. Unfortunately I didn't get to sleep for as long as I wanted.

“Chaengie~” I heard a voice at 4 am. I shook myself awake. I cracked an eye open and rubbed it, wondering why Mina would interrupt my beauty sleep.

“Minaaaa? What's wrong..? Why did you wake me up so early? It's 4 am. Get to sleep!” I laid back down and pulled the covers over my head.

“Today is the day that VR game comes out! I can't sleep! I'm too excited!” She shook me, but when she saw that she was getting no reaction from me, she climbed my bed and straddled me, hovering above my head. She pulled the covers away from my face, her long dark hair tickling my nose. 

“I’m sorry. I just wanna go out and buy the game now…”

“It's 4 am, Penguin.” I was gonna end the conversation there and pretend to go back to sleep, but I couldn't get her straddling me out of my mind. My heart started thumping so hard I was afraid she'd think my heartbeat was me trying to hump her.

I gave in. “Hhhh, okay, okay. H-how much does it cost? We have bills to pay tomorrow, so it can't be too much. Games usually cost $60, right? I think we can manage.” It all came out of my mouth in a rush, afraid I'd lose my train of thought. I really couldn't stop thinking about how close she was to me...

Mina’s face looked guilty. “Well…” 

“Well what? It shouldn't c-cost more than that. Unless it being VR makes it cost a shit-ton more.” 

“No, no. It does cost about $60. But, see, Paracosmos is a PS4 exclusive. I only have my gaming PC. So to play it I'd have to buy a PS4 VR. And then I'd have to get Paracosmos separately, since it's not included in the bundle. That's like $550 in total, I think.”

My jaw dropped. “Did you know all of this previously? Mina, y-you took a lot of unpaid sick days this month, so we won't be able to buy your bundle and pay the rent. Imagine how ugly we'd look if we asked the manager at the office to give us an extension!” 

Mina nodded, clearly upset. “I assumed I had more sick days so we wouldn't lose money…” She nodded to herself and continued. “Either way, it's not like it's gonna be out for one day only or have a very limited amount of copies. I can wait a little longer to buy it, I guess.”

I felt really, really bad that she'd have to wait even longer, but we had to put ourselves first. 

I patted the empty spot next to me on my bed, certain that she was sleepy despite her claims. She'd gotten incredibly sick that month, causing her to miss most work days and lock herself in while I went to work. 

When her illness by itself didn't make her sleepy, she was drowsy due to her medicine anyway. I thought it would be a good idea to spend some time together, even if it was just sleeping some more. We’d be next to each other for two hours, which was definitely more than we’d seen each other recently. She laid down next to me and made a pouty face.

“Sorry we can't get the game, Mina.” I pulled her closer. “Let's hope I can go to work everyday and gather some cash! That way we can get it next month. Okay?”

I waited a bit, expecting Mina to celebrate. I got nothing but a soft snore. I turned to see a sleeping Mina. 

Wow, loser. Just fall asleep all of a sudden, why don't you? I pulled the covers up over us and sighed. Everything was gonna work out. Yeah, yeah! Maybe not like we wanted, but still in a way that was manageable!

The second before I succumbed to sleep, I remembered something: JYP never came back to tell me what happens to the player when the helmet was removed.


	2. Level 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys like long chapters or short chapters?

“Damn it, Mina! Why? I told you not to buy it yet! We couldn't afford to buy your game and the bundle! Now we have no money to pay the rent!”

*****

God, the day had been going great before Mina arrived with the bags. It could've been one of the best.

I woke up, made myself a bomb-ass breakfast burrito, and went to work. All of my coworkers were incredibly tired, but all of them were as cheerful as they could be, so I spent the day chatting with them when I could. I was even treated surprisingly well by the customers that day, which was...incredibly rare. Working in retail is really a bitch most of the time.

When the day was over, I drove home, put my music through my speakers and made myself a huge cup of coffee. I was absolutely relaxed, positive that the rest of the day would be as chill as the morning. I even thought to myself, “Ah~ What could possibly go wrong today?”

You never ask yourself that, because apparently, a whole freaking lot could go wrong.

For starters, I hadn't noticed that Mina was missing; she'd been spending most of her sick days in bed resting up, therefore I assumed that was the case again. She was always quiet, after all, her voice almost inaudible even though she was trying to be loud. The first day of 12th grade, the Calculus teacher hadn't heard Mina say “Here…” during roll call, so she was counted absent for that class, getting her in trouble with her parents. If one took that into consideration, it didn't seem like a big deal that she hadn't made a peep since I’d gotten home.

Being the amazing roommate that I've always been, I made her a burrito with the leftover stuff from that morning, in case she hadn't eaten already. Surely she was starving from a day of resting in bed. I went to her room and gently knocked on her door.

“Mina? Can I come in? I made you a burrito!”

No response. A little weird, but not unheard of. She could be sleeping, I thought to myself.

“Knock Knock?” I tapped on the door a little harder, the sound slightly echoing back. “Mina, I'm coming in, okay? I really don't want the burrito to get cold. Hope you're dressed.”

All I found was a neatly made bed, sans Mina. I set the plate down and searched around her room, checking even the smallest nooks and crannies for her. She was nowhere to be found. 

I ran to the kitchen and looked for her, not finding her at all. The bathroom, the closets, even my own room… She wasn't behind any of those doors.

Where was she? Was she hiding from me? Was she kidnapped while I was at work? I started thinking about the worst case scenarios, nearly giving myself a self-induced panic attack.

Just when I was really about to start panicking, I heard the front door locks turn and open. 

She had been out? I really didn't even care for an answer at that moment. I was just glad that Mina hadn't disappeared into a different dimension.

“Mina!” I shouted from my room. “Why are you up? You’re still sick, you dweeb. I don't care if you have the strength to get up, getting out is still a risk.” I stepped out to greet her, secretly super psyched to see Mina out and about. It was probably the first time in weeks since she'd felt the sun on her skin. “Get to your room and I'll give you the burrito I made for you-” 

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the bags in Mina’s hands. They weren't grocery bags. No, no. These were giant plastic bags, thick and strong, made to hold heavy items. She was holding them as if they held something incredibly valuable. 

“Mina? What’s that? What are the things in the bags?” Yeah, you bet I already knew what was in the bags, but a small and positive lil Chaeyoung inside of me hoped I was wrong, that I was still stressed out from losing Mina for a second, that she hadn’t gone out and bought Paracosmos.

She hid her face behind her dark hair, a habit of hers that I learned means that she's hiding something or feeling guilty. I stepped closer and tried to check the contents of the bags but she backed away quickly and looked at me with a hint of remorse in her eyes.

“I-I had to get it. I’m so sorry, Chaengie. Here, sorry for pulling away. Look.” She opened the bags and showed me the PlayStation console box and the game she'd been wanting. “I’ve been so depressed, and I n-need something to distract me– I promise I'll find a way to get the money back as soon as po-”

“Damn it, Mina!” I didn't mean to interrupt her, but seeing the GameStop bags in her hands pissed me off. “I told you not to buy it yet! We’re, like, $600 short now and the money we have left was supposed to go towards buying other stuff like groceries. What are we going to do now?” 

I could feel my eyes start to well up with tears, which was something I hated about myself. I always cry when I'm angry, but I didn't want to cry. Not at that moment. I wiped them away quickly and smoothed down my short hair. I wanted to look calm and not freak Mina out.

Mina set the bags down and walked over to me, her eyes full of hurt. “Don't raise your voice to hide the fact that you're crying, Chae... I d-don't wanna see you cry. It's just the rent, it's not the end of the world!” She reached for my arms, but it was my turn to pull away. 

“Chaengie,” she said with a surprised look on her face, “don’t do that. I know not purchasing it was something we agreed on, but you're n-not home most of the time and I get so tired of waiting for you to get home… Don’t pull away from me…

Mina never really cries, she just gets teary-eyed, but this time I saw the tears already starting to stream down her face. Seeing her like that made the small ball of anger melt away. I lowered my head in an apologetic bow.

“Mina, I'm sorry. I wasn't really angry. Please don't cry.” Her face was already red and puffy, so I reached out to wipe her tears. She stiffened when I touched her, probably unsure about whether I was actually angry at her.

“Jeez. Lemme wipe your tears, Minari.” I said it with the most gentle voice I could, hoping to calm her down.

After a bit she relaxed and let me wipe the rest of her tears. She tried speaking but she kept choking on her words. It took her many tries, but finally she asked “Chaengie, can you forgive me?”

“Shhh, hey, hey.” I put a finger on her lips, feeling them tremble a bit. “Minari, I'm the one that should be asking for forgiveness. I wasn't really mad. I was more...surprised than anything. I told myself to keep calm but I let my temper show... Like you said, this is not the end of the world.” I got closer to her, putting an arm over her shoulders.

“I still left us with pretty much no money,” she muttered, letting her hair fall to her face again. “I don't know what we're gonna do, Chaeyoung. Because of me, we have to choose between having money to eat and paying the rent.” She sat down at the kitchen table and put her head down. “Oh god, what did I do? I just realized how fucked up it was for me to do that.”

“Mina,” I whispered into her ear and rubbed her arm. “We’ll figure it out. Leave it all to me, okay? I'll do everything I can to figure out what to do from here. Go to your room, get in bed, and eat the burrito I made you. I'll call for you when I’ve decided on what our plan of action will be.”

She looked like she was going to argue, but she simply nodded solemnly and left to eat her burrito.

I sat back and stretched, thinking back on my small outburst earlier. It really wasn't like me to get mad for a reason as small as this. She must have been super sensitive due to her constant loneliness as well, since she started crying so quickly. There was an unexplainable pain in my gut, the kind that can't be fixed with a painkiller. 

Damn, man, this guilt is gonna murder you later, I thought to myself. I probably scared the living shit out of her, chastising her for trying to help herself fight depressing thoughts and feelings.

I grabbed a pad of paper and pulled up my phone’s calculator, hoping that this would distract me from that thought for the time being. 

I needed to see if we could budget our next few weeks so that we could use the remaining money to give a payment for the rent, and use the rest for groceries. Every dollar would help.

As I was scribbling some stuff down, I remembered that we had to pay our phone bills that coming week. Just to add more pain and suffering to our lives, my tiny car was a gas-guzzling piece of shit that needed like 30 gallons per tank, and it used that up fast. 

A sudden realization came to me. Mina has a car too. “Oh god, we have two cars. Jesus fucking Christ.” I slammed my head on the table. 

Neither of us had saved any money for college. If we had, I could have tried for a Masters Degree in Fine Arts and Mina could’ve continued the ballerina training she'd abandoned years ago, or gone into coding, which was something she was really interested in our final years of high school. Who knows, maybe at this time she could've made a cool AAA video game with many awards.

We had been stupid to spend our money on meaningless things. We weren't poor, definitely, but we still struggled to make ends meet sometimes. We’d catch a break and have enough money to spend on vacations and trips, but that wasn’t as often as we'd like. Three months ago, the manager of the apartment complex gave us two rent-free months for our three year anniversary living there. It was the only reason we could go to Mina’s convention.

Sitting back up and knowing that stressing about the past wouldn't fix anything, I let myself breathe for a second. I couldn't go back in time and do anything about our situation. If I focused too much on the mistakes I've made, I'd drive myself insane.

Focus on now, Chaeyoung. Mina is waiting for you to fix this.

After that thought, I got to work.

*****

By the end of the budget planning session, the number that appeared on our shared bank account was nowhere near enough for us to do what we wanted, just as I had expected. My head started to hurt like hell. I was beyond stressed, so I decided to not wake Mina up and just get to bed. I could settle the problem later. 

The night was silent, dark and cold. As soon as I settled into bed, I knew I wouldn't sleep, not with all these thoughts going through my head. 

At about 3 am that same night, I was finally about to pass out from exhaustion, but there was a faint knock on my door that kept me from doing so. When I told Mina to come in, she seemed to hesitate. That tugged on my heartstrings. The thought of my best friend being afraid of me would haunt me for the rest of my life. Would she fear me for a stupid outburst?

“Mina? Come in, it's okay. I'm sorry, again. I'm not mad.” I audibly patted the spot next to me, hoping she'd believe me and join me. I was wide awake now, my heart thumping wildly, unsure of what would happen next. Would she think I was better off alone and suggest moving out? Or something worse?

My baby penguin came in shyly— she was taking painfully unsure steps toward me— and laid next to me, still staying silent, which was okay. It was better than what I had imagined would happen.

I didn't know how to start the conversation so I just asked “Did you, uh, eat the burrito I made you?” 

Mina stayed silent, choosing instead to shake her head. I wanted her to talk to me, tell me how she was feeling, but I knew she was afraid of saying something and setting me off again.

“Hey, Penguin. I really truly am sorry.” I closed my eyes and let it out. “I yelled at you and hurt your feelings, and I apologize. It really wasn't that deep. Like you said, it's just one month of rent out the window.” I started playing with her hair, which I knew always soothed her.

After a few deafeningly silent seconds, she finally spoke up.

“Tell me what we’re going to have to do to pay the rent. What did you plan? I'm going to work tomorrow no matter what, to help you raise money quickly.”

I let go of her hair and gently smacked her forehead. “You still can't go to work, Mina. The doctor said that you could possibly get worse if you attempted to return to work. Let's just let your body heal up and once that happens, we can work together to save up.”

She didn't seem too happy with that plan.

“Don't you worry, Minari. I came up with a budget plan. I know you're usually the one doing this kind of thing, so it may not be perfect, but maybe you can check it and see if there’s anything we can add or remove?”

Even in the dark, I could see Mina’s beautiful eyes sparkle thanks to the light coming through my blinds. They had some sort of dreamy look to them. “Don't stop playing with my hair, Chaengie. Keep doing that and then we can go.”

“Nooo, first, let’s proofread that plan, then I'll scratch your head and play with your hair all you want.” I laughed at the face she made and gently tugged on her hair.

“You're such a cute dork.” I kissed her forehead, maybe lingering my lips a little longer than necessary, but moments as tender as this were rare, and getting to kiss her smooth forehead was even rarer.

I helped her off my bed, leading her to the kitchen where I had left the notepad. Mina groaned in protest, stomping the whole way there. She checked out the plan, though, despite her obvious annoyance in me not playing with her hair.

“Save on power to lower the electric bill… Yeah, that's good. We can just watch less TV and maybe go out to the park more often. Next, cancel all our magazine subscriptions. Aw, there go my PlayStation and Game Informer issues...” She huffed and took a good look at me. “Whatever. There won't really be any interesting games coming out these next few months.” 

She seemed okay with the plan. That is, until she got to the last bullet point. “Chaeng… what is this? Why?” She turned the paper to me. “‘Buy only a fraction of the usual groceries to reduce the amount we eat’… Chaeng, I don't want you to starve yourself just because of this. Isn't there anything else we can cut?”

“Mina, it's okay, both of us are just gonna be buying less ‘extra’ stuff. Like, less jelly, peanut butter, chips, ketchup-”

“Can we please not cut off ketchup?” she interrupted, grabbing at her chest and giving me a dramatic look. “It's a necessity for me, you know.” She paused and gave me a wicked smile that set my soul ablaze. “But I know what we can cut? Your cereal isn't that important, right?”

She was just teasing but the mere thought of not eating all of my favorite cereals legit made me start tearing up.

My penguin came closer and pouted. “I’m kidding. I really should have waited to buy the game. We wouldn't have to think about all the things we have to give up. Ugh, and a couple gaming sources are talking about how Paracosmos is super glitchy. There are even some reports on the game servers not connecting right and that patches probably won't be released until much later.”

“What kind of glitches are we talking about? I remember talking to the, uh, main developer, I think, about bugs and he told me that there was this problem where you couldn't remove your helmet whenever you wanted to.”

Mina perked up. “Oh, you talked to Park Jin-young?”

“Yeah, as soon as you sat down and put the headset on, he scared me and told me that it was a bad idea to touch you and stuff, since the game was still in early development.”

“Yeah, I think I read about that somewhere a while ago. Your game starts glitching out of you try to take your headset off and you have to find a checkpoint in the game before exiting to fix it. Supposedly it's super hard to find a checkpoint in the first place, so it's gonna be harder to, you know, get permission to remove the helmet when your game doesn't work. A lot of people are complaining that the first hours after they got the game, they had to use the bathroom and couldn't leave until they defeated a monster boss.”

I hate to be the one to say I told you so but I couldn't resist that time. “Ah… See? Next time, listen to me, you doof. Now you can't pee until the game says you can! Your new nickname is now ‘Only Listen to Chaeyoung’.”

I flicked her forehead and she made a cute frowny face. “Oww...Yeah. I’m still sorry, Chae.” There was a look in her eye that told me she still felt awful for spending all of that money. It really was a huge setback, but it was only for this month. We'd get back on track by then and not make fools of ourselves. 

“Nah, don't worry about it. Less junk food for a month sounds pretty good, no? Maybe we can make this an actual thing.”

She looked at me with a serious face. “Ok, but I need my Cheetos, Chaeng! If you don't buy them while we're raising the money, I'm breaking up with you!” She crossed her arms in mock anger.

“Yeah yeah, fine, we’ll exclude Cheetos from the list of things to not buy. Only for you, though, sweetie pie. I wouldn't want to lose the love of my life over Cheetos.” 

Joking about dating was a cute thing she did sometimes, but it really hurt my soul. Playing along always made me long for her more.

Mina’s stomach growled. “Good choice of words, Chaeyoung. But I'm hungry now. Can you make some food while I shower?”

“Didn’t you eat the burrito I made you earlier?”

“No. I don't like the burritos you make.”

Offended, I inched my face closer to hers. “This might be the reason we break up, sweetheart. You love the burritos I make. Why you lyin’?”

Mina sighed, no longer playing around. “I'm just tired. You know what? Never mind. I, uh, wanna go to sleep. It's really late. Goodnight, Chaengie. I love you.”

With a dorky smile on my face, I told her the same. 

“I love you too, Mina. But please eat the burrito. It would cheer me up a bit to know that you're eating.” I saw her nod and walk away. She probably didn't hear that last part, as she didn't reply at all.

For maybe the billionth time that night, I sighed. I was so incredibly in love with Mina, and I wanted her to be as happy as possible. I knew this whole situation was gonna make that plan harder to come true, but we had been through worse, emotionally, in high school. I guessed it seemed harder this time because it had been a long time since we experienced a hardship like this, and because this time it was a monetary problem.

I thought that things would get easier from that point, but I really underestimated Mina’s impulsiveness. Never in a million years did I think Mina would try to escape her guilt by purposely trapping herself inside Paracosmos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This came out angstier than I planned. Oops.


	3. Level 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @ Sony @ PlayStation, y'all should sponsor me, just sayin'.

About a week passed since Mina bought Paracosmos.

 

I got home from work at the usual time, sweaty and ready for a cool shower. The past couple days had been the hottest of the year so far, and the heat always put me in an awful mood.

 

After Mina’s escape to buy the game, I made it a habit to check on her as soon as I got home, and although every single time I had checked she was playing Paracosmos, I still peeked in, just in case. 

 

I dropped all of my things and stripped myself of my sweaty clothes. I put on pajamas that were on my bed, planning on throwing them into the laundry once I was done showering. I headed straight for Mina’s room. Would she even take a second to stop playing? Maybe she would this time.

 

I knocked and when she didn't answer, I opened the door loudly, making sure I made enough noise for her to notice my presence. 

 

It was for nothing though, as I my earlier assumption was correct; she was hooked up to the PlayStation, almost completely still as she explored the virtual world within. 

 

Seeing that she was so enraptured by the game made me stop in my tracks and feel a burning sensation in my heart. It was not the usual kind of lovely fire she usually made me feel; instead, this was a nasty burn, the kind that feels like I had just downed three shots of Scotch without bracing myself first. It  _ hurt. _

 

I forced myself to put my pain aside for a second and focus on what was in front of me. The only sounds that could be heard were the slight click-clack of the controller in Mina’s hands and the soft whirring of her PlayStation’s fans working hard to keep the console cool. You could hardly even hear her breathing. Was she really even alive? I was afraid to check. She already looked pretty malnourished as it was. Her clothes hung off her frame in an odd way, and the part of her face that that I could see had a sheen of sweat that was hard to ignore.

 

Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly glad she was distracted from her illness and her constant loneliness. I just...really missed her. She hadn't stopped playing the game at all since she bought it, and she seemed like she wasn't taking care of herself because of it.

 

In fact, that statement may not have been an exaggeration. I realized at that moment that I hadn't seen her come out to shower, eat or use the bathroom yet.

 

_ Maybe she just uses the bathroom while I'm at work? _

 

I tried to remember if I really hadn't seen her outside of her room. I couldn't recall a single time within the week where I'd spotted her in the living room or the kitchen.

 

I warily made my way to her desk and caught the incredibly strong scent of sweat.

 

“Jesus, Mina!” I grabbed my nose and held it closed. I started breathing through my mouth, hoping that that would help, but the stench was so prominent that I started tasting it. 

 

I coughed and tapped her shoulder, hoping that she'd remove the headset and explain to me why she reeked. 

 

“Mina, hey! How long have you been playing?”

 

She gave me no response. I gently tugged on the headset, expecting Mina to at least react to me disturbing her game. Again, nothing, and I regretted not checking if she was actually alive.

 

I checked her pulse and felt under her nose for breathing, and everything seemed alright. So why wasn't she responding?

 

I gave her an exasperated sigh. “Mina, get out of the game and shower already. You smell like a boy’s locker room. Or, you could say that you have that distinct  _ loser _ smell!” I expected the teasing to wake her from her zombie state. It did not.

 

I looked around her desk, searching for an ON/OFF button on the console, when my eye caught sight of a piece of paper, carefully folded with my name on it, on top of the PlayStation. In small, neat handwriting, it read:

 

**Chaeyoung,**

 

**I'm sorry in advance. I know you will get mad when you're done reading this, and yes, you’ll have a reason to be... But please understand and meditate upon what I'm about to say.**

 

**I'm going to stay inside Paracosmos and let you buy all the things you need to live comfortably. I'll be out after two weeks or so, since I hope that by then, not having two mouths to feed will positively impact the spending. (My dad once told me that humans can survive three weeks without food. But I'm not about to starve for that long, so I'll go ⅔ and hope it was good enough, haha.)**

 

**Maybe there were better ways to not spend too much money on groceries, but this was the fastest solution. And the easiest. Take care of yourself while I'm gone. See you in two weeks. I love you, Chaengie ^^**

 

I stared at the note for ten seconds before turning to Mina. I couldn't see her eyes, since the headset was in the way, but I knew she had a blank stare as she was playing. She had no idea how much pain she was causing me at that moment. Is that why she had been gone for so long? Had she really not eaten at all since stepping into Paracosmos that night?

 

“You idiot… How is that gonna solve anything? You really think that I wanted you gone?” I slammed my fist down on her desk. “And you can't survive more than 10 fucking days without water! You’re gonna die in there!” I knew she wouldn't hear me, but it still felt good to shout something at her after seeing her make another mistake.

 

“Mina, get out of there, you can't starve yourself for two weeks! It’s only been one week and you already look like a skeleton!” I grabbed the headset and tried to pull it off her face. It was hard though, like as if the VR headset was a parasite, unwilling to let go of its host.

 

I loosened the retractable band on the back of it a little, and was about to remove it completely when I remembered something. I jumped away from Mina like as if I'd been shocked. 

 

_ What if JYP didn't get rid of the really damaging bugs in the game? _

 

Did he fix the bugs he'd told me about before? I didn't want Mina to experience any lag and get nauseous while playing the game. Or worse, I'd also hate to give my best friend brain damage because I made a careless mistake. As much as I trusted JYP and his employees in making sure all was well with the game, something in the back of my head told me that it was better to be safe than sorry.

 

I tried to stay calm. If I panicked now, I could make a huge mistake as well. I carefully tightened the band on the VR headset again and made sure it was on correctly. Once I was sure of that, I thought about what I should do next to make sure I hadn't just fucked up big time.

 

I checked the small box that the game had come in, hoping to find a ‘How to Play’ guide that would tell me what to do. While searching, I noticed that all of the plastic that had been covering it was still strewn all over Mina’s bed. That was more than a little weird, because despite Mina always looking and dressing like an emo edgelord, she was actually a soft mama’s girl that always made sure her room was impeccable. 

 

Was she really so desperate to escape reality that she abandoned her own values? Or was it that she really cared about me and wanted to keep me from starving? Either way, it was out of character, and once again, it worried me greatly. 

 

The guide on how to play Paracosmos was nowhere to be found inside the box. I dropped down to the floor and started searching for it. Surely it had come with one, right? They had to give players warnings about epilepsy and all that in physical form, no? Or was that a thing of the past? Did they  _ ever  _ do that? I really had no clue, as I had never played a video game in my life. I wouldn't even play with Mina whenever she asked me to join her and her buddies in a game. I was starting to regret it now, as at least being in a room with her while she opened a new game would tell me if they carried guides and warnings.

 

There was nothing on the floor that resembled a game guide, so I got exasperated and pulled out my phone instead. I wasn't sure what to look up exactly, so I just googled  _ Paracosmos danger brain damage release  _ and hoped I'd get something that correlated with what I wanted to find. The stuff I got made my blood run cold. Most articles had long titles that were cut off on the results page, but they were enough on there for me to want to scream.

 

**JYPE’s Newest Game** **_Paracosmos_ ** **Might Just Be A** **_Danger…_ **

 

**_Paracosmos_ ** **Has a Bug That Makes Servers Freeze and…**

 

**The Glaring Problem with** **_Paracosmos_ ** **and The Bug That…**

 

**This Sucks: 5 Reasons** **_Paracosmos’ Release_ ** **Should Have...**

 

My eyes started watering up, and I dropped my phone, letting it land and bounce around. 

 

Had I moved the headset too much? Was the bug really not fixed? So many questions ran through my head, but one of them was more prominent: was the bug the articles spoke of the brain damage one? Or was it just the server issues one? No way that was the case. Server issues wouldn’t be considered ‘dangerous’, would they? Maybe a hindrance, but...

 

There was only one way to find out if my actions had negative consequences. I'd have to go out and buy an extra headset.

 

*****

 

“Y-yeah, I'm really sorry. It really sucks that you can't connect more than one headset. Console limitations keep that from happening, you know what I mean?” The cashier gave me a small smile. 

 

She was taller than me, maybe three inches taller, which would make her look intimidating to someone tiny like me, but her facial features were soft and kind. Her smile made me feel better. You could tell she probably actually felt bad that she couldn't help me at all. 

 

She was so pretty, I had to fight to remember what she had just told me.

 

“Uh, what did you say? About console complications?”

 

“Oh,” she laughed a bit. “Console limitations?”

 

I could only guess what console limitations were. Probably just meant that the technology inside wasn't good enough to sense two VR headsets at once. 

 

I smiled back at her, hoping it didn't look too fake. “Uh, yeah. Console limitations, I get you,” I said, my empty voice betraying me. 

 

I didn't know what to do anymore. If I couldn't connect to the game, I’d be left in the dark. I wouldn't know if Mina was okay or if moving her headset around as she was playing had done some irreparable damage to her brain. I felt panic rise up my throat like bile, and I would have actually thrown up if the cashier hadn't spoken up.

 

Her brown eyes shined brightly, trying to keep a happy face. “Hey, hey! Cheer Up! You're just trying to play Paracosmos, right? If you have another PS4, we can sell you just the headset, which includes the camera for free, and you can just update and connect it to your PS4. Bam! It's a PS4 VR!” She laughed a little, still a bit awkward. “I'll even throw in some official motion controllers as a bonus, just don't tell my boss. I'll give you all of that for $399.99. How’s that sound?”

 

“But you said that only one headset can be connected?” I was confused as to what she was trying to tell me.

 

“No, yeah, but I'm talking about… Like if you had bought a regular PS4 previously, and want to play VR games now, we can sell you a whole VR set. It's like the same thing as a PS4 VR bundle, just without having to buy another console. It's just a way to not leave the players with just the console in the dark, you dig? You only have to update your PlayStation to meet the standards that are necessary for the virtual reality stuff to work. Then you can play online with a friend.”

 

That was nice but…

 

“I still have no money, dude.” My voice cracked really badly, strained from holding back tears. “I think I made a huge mistake and I don't know what to do…” 

 

The cashier looked worried and started playing with her Ponytail. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was maybe too afraid. I would have asked her if something was wrong but my voice wouldn't cooperate. It felt like I’d throw up if I tried to speak.

 

She spoke up instead, obviously fighting some kind of embarrassment. She looked around at the empty GameStop and asked “Wh-what's your name?”

 

It was my turn to feel embarrassed. Why did she ask me that at this time? Was she flirting, or was the panic inside of me keeping me from seeing the obvious?

 

“Guh...my name..?” I seemed to have forgotten my name.  _ Oh god what was my name?! _

 

“My name is Somi! Jeon Somi! I'm sorry for asking you all of a sudden. I’m not being a creep or anything, I was just wondering.”

 

“Son…”

 

She blinked twice. “Uh? Sorry?” 

 

“Son Chaeyoung,” I managed to stutter out, for some reason still unsure if that was my name. Who the fuck forgets their name?

 

“Chaeyoung?” She seemed excited to hear my name. Her excitement was a really contagious thing, since my voice came back and my throat untightened. I smiled at her, still a bit nauseous.

 

“Yeah, that's me… Nice to meet you, Somi,” I said as I awkwardly put my hair behind my ear. I didn't know why she asked me my name, and it made me slightly self conscious.

 

“Oh, I asked because my shift is like 20 minutes from being over, and if you really need that PlayStation, I can take you to my house and let you borrow it, so you don't need to spend your money!”

 

My eyes opened wide. “What? Why?”

 

Somi shrugged awkwardly. “You're having a crisis in the middle of a GameStop, so you gotta be really needing that console.”

 

The panic came back once again, having forgotten for a second the reason I was at the store in the first place, but it faded away in an instant when I remembered that Somi was willing to help me, whatever the reason was. But was she really gonna let a weepy stranger borrow such an expensive item?

 

“Are you okay with my roommate seeing you in your pajamas? Or you can just wait for me to bring you the console at your own apartment, if you want.”

 

I looked down at myself. I'd completely forgotten that that was the outfit I'd run out of my apartment with. I blushed and waved it off. “Ah, that’s right. I'll wait at my apartment, then. Do you need my address?” It was stupid of me to go to a stranger’s house for a videogame, but I was in desperate need to know if Mina was okay, so I decided to do it anyway.

 

Somi shook her head and checked the clock. Nonchalantly, she said “I already know where you live.” She looked around the store again and when she saw it was still empty, she went to the back room to grab her bag. Pulling out her keys, she smiled at me and put them in my hands. “It’s almost 9 pm. Turn on my car for me so we waste no time going to our apartments?”

 

I narrowed my eyes at her. “How do you know where I live? And are you really ‘bout to trust a stranger with your keys?”

 

Somi gave me a toothy grin. “Mina is a frequent customer here. We hang out sometimes. That's why I know where you live. She talks about you nonstop, and she trusts you with everything, maybe even her life, so I’m sure I can trust you with my keys.” She pointed at her car and gently pushed me towards it, focusing her attention on a customer that had just walked in.

 

Once I told her my name, had she figured out who I was? Mina must've really talked about me  _ that _ much, since Somi was ok with giving me her keys and console despite never actually meeting me.

 

My heart ached again. I wanted to run to Mina and hug her, apologize for the billionth time for yelling at her, and thank her for always saying nice things about me. But I couldn't. Once she was out of the game, though, I'd tell her how thankful I was for her.

 

With a heavy heart, I started Somi’s car. Ten minutes later, she was finally off work. She stepped into her car and I jumped into my own, heading to my apartment. 

 

Somi was in front of me, taking the same turns as I was until she lead me to my own apartment complex. Did Somi and her roommate really live near us? It became more apparent that I was a really bad neighbor when Somi pulled up to the building next to ours and parked.

 

When we met up again, she laughed at my expression. 

 

“Didn't think we lived close to you, huh? We’ve lived here about as long as you and Mina have. Sometimes when my car doesn't wanna start, Mina even takes me to work.”

 

I was surprised by that. Aren't gamers supposed to be the ones with no lives and no friends outside of the online ones they played with? When she wasn't home, was this where she was at? Hanging out with Somi and her roommate? Damn, maybe I was the loser in the household, not Mina.

 

The taller girl told me to go on to my house and get everything ready to set up the PlayStation. Obediently, I ran to my apartment and into Mina’s room, moving Mina’s TV closer to her desk and getting the Wi-Fi password, just in case. 

 

When Somi arrived, her eyes immediately landed on Mina. “Oh, hey! I didn't know you were here!” 

 

When Mina remained silent, she frowned. “Hey, can you hear me?”

 

I gripped her shoulder lightly and shook my head. “Somi… I’m going into Paracosmos to convince Mina to get out. She trapped herself in there… I’ll explain everything better later. Right now, I have to make sure that I didn't just give Mina brain damage.”

 

She nodded. “I think I have an idea of what happened anyway. When are you jumping in? Right now? Or do we set it up later?”

 

I sat down on Mina’s bed. “Right now. The faster the better. Mina has gone without water or food for about a week.” I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, getting a little angry at Mina again while explaining to Somi. I forced myself to chill out. It wasn't the time to get pissed. 

 

“I’d force feed her if I could but I'm afraid she'll choke and die. And water is out of the question too. She won't respond IRL to anything I do to her, whether it be shaking or smacking. That makes me think that she won't swallow water either, cuz maybe she can't feel anything while she's in the game.”

 

Somi nodded, a confused look covering her face. “That's weird. It's just goggles on your face. It’s immersive, yeah, but not enough to make you incapable of feeling things.”

 

I shrugged and shook my head. “I don't know why she's acting like this.”

 

Somi took a deep breath. “Okay, so I already know how to set everything up. I'm gonna configure the settings and make sure everything goes smoothly. I'll use the PlayStation camera to scan your face and get a good avatar face. Then we put the headset on you, I'll give you the motion controllers, and you're good to go.”

 

After 10 minutes of setting things up and taking pictures of my face as a pre-game requisite, Somi sighed. “Okay, done. Let's get the headset on you.”

 

Somi slipped the giant goggle-looking headset over my eyes, casting me into a deep deep darkness that made my skin crawl. I suddenly worried about every aspect of this plan. I didn't know shit about video games. Maybe it was better if Somi jumped in instead of me. I was already contemplating giving up. The darkness inside of the headset was getting to me.

 

Somi handed me something. They were two long, thin cylinder-like things. They felt like…

 

“Somi what the hell, did you just hand me two vibrators?!” I dropped them to the ground and ripped off the headset. 

 

“No! God, Chaeyoung, those are the Move controllers!” She put them back in my hands. “Don't take the headset off anymore. Thankfully, you're not in the game yet, so you're unaffected by a bad bug this game has.”

 

I put the headset back on. “Th-that was childish. I'm just- I've never touched a dildo or a vibrator...or anything like that. I just freaked out. I'm sorry.” I fanned myself, my heart still racing. 

 

“It's alright. You're probably just nervous about this. These Move controllers aren't big, yet they still feel slightly uncomfortable. While they feel bulky in your hands, they make up for it by giving you slightly more control within the game. Not a lot of people buy these because they they usually speed through the game. But it was optimized for the Move controllers that Sony made, so they give you the full experience, so to speak, if you plan on taking your time inside.

 

“Anyway, the game hasn't received any patches yet, so there will be a lot of issues. You never really know what you'll see. Mina has told me you've never played video games, so here are some little guidelines. Don't freak out, don't throw the controllers, don't remove your headset. Only do so when you get to a checkpoint and the game says ‘You may now turn off the system and/or remove the headset’ or something along those lines.”

 

I nodded, still seeing nothing through the headset. 

 

“I'll check up on you often. Remember that there are other players on the server, so be careful with who you trust and form alliances with.”

 

“I'm not gonna form alliances. I'm just going in to get Mina to a checkpoint and come out with her. That's all.”

 

Somi was silent for a second. “I think it's for the best that you find a guild in-game and make friends. Everything will go smoother if you do that. Maybe if you don't find Mina after, say, an hour, ask for help and join players with skills. Do it just to save time. There’ll be players that know the land better than you will, so they'll be useful.”

 

“Please just start the game now, Somi. I have a friend to check up on, I need to hurry.”.

 

“Okay, but there's a lot of stuff I still haven't told you about. But if you're in a hurry, then I'll start it in three... two-”

 

“W-wait, nevermind, I have to use the bathroom,” I admitted, feeling the slight sensation creeping up on me. I was about to get up when Somi put her hand on my shoulder and held me down. She put the headphones on my ears. 

 

It was pretty muffled, but I could hear her say “I forgot to put these on you, my bad. But like you said, you're in a hurry. No time for a bathroom break. Good luck, Chaeyoung.” 

 

An intense bright light flashed before my eyes, and the game started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently writing chapter 4 and it's my favorite so far. Stay tuned for that~


	4. [GAME OVER]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hey. Guess what? Someone that goes by the name of PengJeongnam plagiarized my story and reposted on asianfanfics.com ... I wonder how they'll feel copying/pasting this chapter and seeing that I'm calling them out? Hmm? Please, go to AFF and report their story for plagiarizing an existing fanfic. I'd appreciate that. Anyways, this chapter is called Game Over but it's not the end yet. Not even close.

LOADING…

The loading screen was enough for me to get nauseous. The letters were too close to my face and the loading icon made me gag and want to throw up. I turned my head, praying that that would help the feeling go away.

My stomach continued churning for two whole minutes, refusing to let me open my eyes until it adjusted. After those two minutes, I slowly opened them. The splash screen had appeared with the Paracosmos logo shining in bright white text. An epic low brass soundtrack played in the background, reminding me of the music that Mina often had playing over her speakers. Despite the fact that the music was cool as hell, I gawked at the beauty that was the forest behind the splash screen text. It looked so real, like I was truly outside watching the trees as the sun was setting.

A prompt popped up.

>Start New Game?

I fumbled to press the right button, not even sure how to do that. I didn't know what button I pressed, but the game went dark for a second and a new prompt appeared:

>Single Player Mode (Story Mode, Available for Offline Play)  
>Online Mode (Internet Connection Required for Online Play)

“Single player means I’ll be alone, so, uh, Mina is probably online, right?” I asked no one in particular. “Dammit. I hope I’m right…” I selected Online.

>Create a Username

I tried “Chaeyoung” but apparently that was already taken, which is always a frustrating thing to read. I decided to try out the username I used on some of my social media, so I carefully selected all of the letters to spell out “ChaeYoungster”. Thankfully, it let me through after that.

I was asked to select one of two options next;

>Create A Character  
>Randomize

“I don't have time to make a character,” I said to myself, and chose to randomize. Surely the outcome didn't matter. Mina played a so-called Skyrim where she spent hours making characters of different races and it still started with the same cutscene every time. Maybe Paracosmos would be the same?

It showed me the result of the randomizer but I had been impatiently pressing random buttons while waiting and accidentally skipped all that. Immediately after, the game unceremoniously dropped me in the middle of what looked like a desolate town. After that, it asked:

>ChaeYoungster, Play the Tutorial? (You can still choose to watch the tutorial in the menu.)

Feeling like I didn't really need to know how to smash a bunch of buttons, I decided to skip the tutorial. I would regret that decision in a couple of minutes.

I looked around inside the world I was in, shocked that I could turn my physical body around and see the rest of the virtual town behind me, like one can do in real life. It was oddly breathtaking. I’d always wanted a game like this in Chuck E Cheese’s, where you could look around and play in a new world for a bit, and there I was, finally getting my wish because of VR.

The small town looked a whole lot like Belle’s in Beauty and the Beast, except this one had crumbling buildings, overgrown grass and a poorly managed road in the middle. There was no one in sight, making it seem even creepier, like a ghost town. Not even the sight of the beautiful forest beyond the town could help the chills from running down my spine.

I tried moving around, afraid to stay in one spot for too long, but found that I couldn't. I didn't know the buttons for that.

“Shit, how do I walk?” I freaked out. Why did I skip the tutorial? What buttons made me go? Was I gonna be stuck in that spot forever? I remembered that the game told me to go to the menu to watch the tutorial again, but I didn't know what button would take me there.

“Hello? Anyone here? I don't know how to move and I skipped the tutorial. Can anyone help me?” I called out, my voice simply bouncing off the walls. Besides myself, the only thing I could hear was a bunch of windows being thrown around by the wind, flapping and banging into walls.

I didn't know what to do. Without the ability to move forward and backward, I wouldn't be able to advance through the game. Everyone always mentioned that you can only leave the game through a checkpoint, and I was sure that the first checkpoint wasn't right where I was standing, or else no one complain about it being so unreachable.

I looked up and saw a bright blue arrow flashing above my head, pointing to the east of me. What it was pointing to exactly, I did not know. If I couldn't get my feet to work with me, then it was pointless to think about going anywhere. I put that fact aside for later use.

After random button presses, I moved my fingers up and down the controllers and found the buttons to move. Thankfully it hadn't taken me that long to do so, so I hadn't wasted too much valuable time trying to find the buttons. Even though no one was watching, I was still embarrassed, as walking was probably the easiest thing in this game and I still managed to find a way to make that a problem. Leave it to Son Chaeyoung to do the impossible.

I knocked on the nearest door, which required me to make a knocking motion IRL. I tried opening the door and found that it was locked. By the looks of it, I could have easily knocked the door down with a solid kick, but the game developers clearly respected doors more than I did, because there was no button that would let me do that. Instead of entering through the door. I peeked through a nearby window and spotted a bottle sitting on a table in the living room. The game told me to press a certain button to open the window, so I did, despite my morality telling me that it's illegal to break into homes. It’s just a game, though, right? If the game said I could, then there was probably nothing wrong with it.

My shoe got caught on the windowsill as I tried to climb in, causing me to lose my balance and crash into a large and expensive-looking vase collection inside the house. I didn't notice at the time, it felt like such a small thing, but my right leg hurt a bit after that. Why?

I got up, snatched the bottle and quickly ducked inside a cabinet, afraid all of the noise I caused would attract unwanted attention. When nothing happened after a minute of hiding, I decided to inspect the bottle I had just stolen. Above it appeared the text:

This glowing potion is rumored to be used by Mages after they've exhausted their powers. (Recover 20 MP.)

MP? I didn't know what that was. I held onto it just in case that was an important term or something. I searched around the rest of the house, wondering if there was anything else that I could use.

I found a neat looking backpack inside a room. The game told me that it was capable of holding more items than it looked. After searching some more, I found 50G under a bed and two health potions hidden in a closet. I stuffed all of that in my new backpack, throwing the first potion I had found in there as well.

I explored more of the town afterwards, looting nine or ten houses, and collected a hefty amount of gold, magic potions and health potions. I proudly puffed up my chest. “I've been in this game for a while and haven't needed a single potion yet! Maybe I'm gonna be really good at this game!”

That's when an arrow flew past my head.

I yelped and ran behind the nearest building. I wasn't sure who shot it but I found it really fucking rude to just shoot at a person out of nowhere. I snuck a peek from the corner to see if the enemy had lost me and screamed loudly when an arrow narrowly missed my right eye.

I stumbled into an alleyway, hoping to get as far away from my assailant as possible. Was that an online player? Or was it a monster? If it was a monster, then that really sucked. I didn't even have a weapon yet and I was already in a random encounter with an enemy.

Very faintly, I heard a voice. “Hey! I heard someone call for help! Sorry I scared you~! Come out and say hello!”

It seemed like a sincere and friendly voice, so I stepped out of my hiding spot and called out to them.

“Oh? Hello!” I waved at them to come closer. The assailant waved back and came closer to me. Once they were 10 feet away, though, they pulled out their bow and shot a third arrow at me.

This one didn't miss.

The sheer force of the arrow piercing my shoulder knocked me backwards onto the dusty brick road. I stared at the arrow protruding from my body, my eyes completely wide. They had shot me so mercilessly, what the hell?

When the pain finally settled in, a wail escaped my lips. There was absolutely no explanation as to why I was in such pain! There wasn't any mention in the warning screen about you actually feeling anything at all. I felt what I felt, though, despite what the game did or did not say, and what I felt could not be described with words.

I grabbed the arrow, which had lodged itself into my shoulder, and tried pulling it out. It was too unbearable, though, so much so that it caused my vision to fade.

The person that shot me stepped closer and removed their mask. It was a girl with long maple leaf orange hair in a ponytail. I can't believe that my gay thoughts surfaced even under extreme pain, but wow, she was extremely beautiful. Very faintly, above her head, was her username and level. I read that “DugunDubuDugun” was her username and that she was level 20.

The girl frowned and crouched next to me. She was so close, I could smell her leather armor. “You got blood on my arrow,” she simply said, establishing early on that she did not give a shit about me. She firmly grabbed the part of the arrow that was not inside of me and with absolutely no hesitation, pulled it out, causing me to cry out again.

I shut my eyes tightly, clenched my teeth and slammed a fist down onto the ground, trying really hard not to pass out. This task proved itself difficult.

She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and gave me a look of distaste. “Don’t be annoying. It's just a game. You didn’t feel any of that.”

“N-no,” I managed to say, noticing from the corner of my eye the pool of blood that had formed around me, “it actually r-really hurts. Help me, please…” It was pathetic of me to beg her for aid, I know, but the agony of the arrow wound was too much for me to care about dignity. I was already close to passing out, and I didn't know what would happen if I did. Doubtful that anything good would happen.

The orange-haired girl’s eyebrows quirked and her frown turned into a look of dread. “You too?”

“Dahyun, hurry, we left our stuff out in the open.” A second person rounded the corner of the building and my pain subsided the second I saw her face. She was a beautiful girl, definitely Asian like the first girl, who I presumed was Dahyun, and I.

My mind reeled at the thought of two incredibly pretty girls seeing me on the floor in a pool of my own blood. I tried to sit up but all I really managed to do was slip on the blood and land on my stomach.

I looked up at the team of two and outstretched my hand. “P-please help me,” I managed to choke out, “I don't know what's ha-happening. It's not supposed to hurt like this. It's just a v-v-video game…” Speaking proved to be too hard of a task, so I rested my forehead against the cool brick road, awaiting a response.

“What did she say? Did she just say that it hurts?” The second girl grabbed Dahyun and led her away from me. I don't know if they did it purposefully, but I could hear everything they said.

“Yeah, she said she's in pain. And it doesn't look like she's faking it… I might not be the only one who's been experiencing this,” Dahyun said, her voice shaking.

“You were right, unnie. Someone caused the server to mess up. That's the only explanation, right? Everything was fine until a couple hours ago,” the taller girl said. I quickly looked up at her and caught sight of her username and level. ChocoChewy, level 20. I put my head back down when I started getting dizzy again.

“I don't know, Tzuyu,” Dahyun said, biting her lip. “It’s not happening to you, thank god, but that could change at any minute. I don't want you to feel what I've been feeling these past couple hours. Besides, who’s stupid enough to remove their headset while playing? Everyone that bought this game knew about the bug. Unless they lived under a rock, then they knew not to do that.”

I didn't have the strength to defend myself or inform them that I wasn't stupid, that I had just panicked and completely forgotten to not remove the headset. Unfortunately, all I could do was listen.

“Well, good thing we found that huge stash of health potions, then!” Tzuyu said, clearly trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't helping at all. In my case, at least. I was still dying on the floor.

“Yeah, but I still feel like we need more. If this is gonna be a thing until we find another checkpoint, then we better find a ton more, or else when we run out I’ll suffer. I really feel it. We’re both gonna suffer without enough potions if things get worse and you start feeling it too. Get Gucci to sniff more out, please.”

“What's a Gucci?” I whispered to myself, not sure what a fucking bag could do at this moment. I looked up in time to see the taller girl, Tzuyu, put her fingers to her lips and whistle sharply. It echoed across the town, past the fields, into the neighboring forest. Nothing happened for a couple seconds.

“Um,” I repeated as loudly as I could, “what's a Guc-”

I was interrupted by the shaking. It was almost like an earthquake but worse since my body bounced around, causing my wound to open up more and my blood to pour out at an even faster rate.

The earthquake got stronger, when suddenly, a giant white and orange...thing… came lumbering towards Tzuyu.

She was in danger, and you bet my gay ass was about to save this cute girl from that.

Adrenaline rushed through my veins, helping me find the strength to get up. I hobbled my way to her, (somewhat) firmly planting myself between her and the giant furball. The animal slammed into me, no problem at all, and next thing I knew I was flying into the air. I caught a very brief glimpse of the entire town, when gravity took over and I landed in the same spot with a sick CRUNCH!

As the dust settled around me, I could hear nothing but Tzuyu joke. “The rag-doll physics this game uses are just too much, aren't they?”

I heard a dog panting near me, so I found the strength to quickly flip myself over. I was met the wet snout of a three-headed dog.

If I wasn't in so much pain I would have actually gotten up and ran for the hills. Instead, I settled with simply stating “Oh.”

“Anyway,” Tzuyu said, “okay, baby, go and sniff out more potions, okay? Go, Gucci, go!”

No way she was talking to that giant beast. No fucking way.

Except she apparently was, because Gucci the three-headed dog ambled towards me, sniffed me, and started barking.

“Does this girl really have enough potions for Gucci to care?” Dahyun asked Tzuyu as she stepped closer to me.

“F-forty potions,” I gasped out, my mind not really processing this wild situation.

“Did this corpse just talk?” Dahyun joked, crouching next to me. “I thought you’d be dead by now.” She put on a serious expression and extended a hand towards me. I took it as her offering her hand to help me up, so I grabbed it and tried to help myself up, but she let go and caused me to fall back down.

I spit out the mouthful of dirt she caused me to eat and glared at her. “What the hell, dude? Are you not gonna help me up?” I reached for her hand again but instead, she frowned at me.

“Listen. You're of no use to Tzuyu and I. Just hand over all of your potions. Every single one of them.”

A new sensation creeped into my heart: fear.

“B-but I'm bleeding. I'm actually hurt! Th-that giant dog probably broke at least five ribs…” Pathetically, I reached out once more, hoping to have gotten through her tough exterior. She had no sympathy for me, though. She stood straight and looked down at me.

“You’re still at level 1, yet have all these potions. You probably don't even know how to play the game. You'll just be a hindrance.” She flipped me onto my back and pulled out all of my potions.

“Look,” Tzuyu said, pointing at my backpack, “she has the enchanted pack.”

Dahyun narrowed her eyes at me when she saw it.

“Where did you find this? It's an ultra rare item.”

I closed my eyes. “I'll tell you if you help me. Just let me reach into my bag and-”

Dahyun shot me with an arrow when she saw me stick a hand into my bag. I held in my screams as she pulled it out of my leg and tapped me with it.

“Don't move.”

I nodded.

Gucci started barking towards the north part of the town, and Tzuyu looked at Dahyun with a face full of anxiety.

“It's the Japanese Duo again. Dahyun, please, let's go before they do what they did last time and take all of our equipment!”

Dahyun nodded and loaded another arrow onto her bow.

“Sorry. Tzuyu and I work alone. We’ll take your bag and all of the potions once you die. Hopefully, then next time you respawn, it'll be somewhere where it's easier to level up. Maybe then we’ll consider taking you into our group and-”

Tzuyu interrupted Dahyun. “The Japanese girls are getting dangerously close, Dubu. Gucci won't stay still for much longer. He'll attack them and get all the EXP...”

Dahyun nodded. “Goodbye for now, ‘Chaeyoungster’.”

She let go of the arrow and it pierced my forehead. Thankfully I died before I could suffer the pain of a point-blank headshot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Wasn't that a bit cruel, unnie? You shot that girl right in the face, even after she told you that she's also being tormented by feeling pain in this game,” Tzuyu said breathlessly, running alongside Dahyun as they made their way back to their camp, hoping to find it in pristine condition.
> 
> Dahyun pursed her lips, trying to pretend she didn't hear her best friend. 
> 
> “Dahyun? Come on, I know she would have been a burden, but we could have just tied her up and looted her stuff. I can't imagine feeling an arrow go through your brain…”
> 
> Dahyun looked up at the girl running next to her. “Forget about her! The two Japanese girls are probably stealing the stuff we worked hard to get, Tzuyu! I'm sure the Dancing Machine girl is stealing all the snacks you had set apart for Gucci and is crunching on them as we speak.”
> 
> Tzuyu lowered her gaze, getting serious all of a sudden. No one stole from her, ever, especially when it came to her three-headed puppy. 
> 
> Tzuyu whistled, causing Gucci to appear and run with them. The taller girl grabbed Dahyun and jumped on top of the dog. 
> 
> Dahyun smiled. This would give them the extra boost they needed to get there quicker. She wanted to beat up one of those Japanese girls in particular. The cute one that was named NoSanaNoLife...


	5. Level 1.2

_ GAME OVER _

 

_ >RESTART? _

 

I thought dying would be enough to exit the game, giving me a chance to talk to Somi again and getting more pointers, but I was wrong. The only option I was given in the pitch black Game Over screen was to restart, which didn't make sense. If there was no other option, then why bother asking me what I wanted?

 

I used this moment of nothingness to take a breather.

 

The arrow Dahyun had shot into my brains wasn't there anymore, but what remained was some kind of phantom pain. I touched my forehead with my real life hand, hoping to give myself some kind of comfort after the headshot, but I couldn't feel anything at all. The fingers attempting to touch my forehead felt nothing, nor did my forehead feel the warmth of my fingers. I wasn't even sure if I had even moved my arm at all. 

 

If this is what had happened to Mina, that was horrifying. If I completely lost my ability to sense real-world things like this, it could mean this game was somehow rotting my brain, damaging my nerve endings and touch receptors. I wasn't completely sure that was the case, but nonetheless I ended my little break and got back to working on finding my best friend.

 

I swallowed away any lingering fear and with a deep sigh, I checked to see if I could still use my hand IRL to press buttons. I selected the restart option.

 

>You will be dropped off at a random location. Continue anyway?

 

I rolled my eyes. I literally could not do anything else except continue. Seeing that my hands did indeed work despite not being able to feel them follow my command, I chose my only option and the game dropped me in the middle of a damp forest.

 

It was a dark night, the wind blowing hard and shaking the leaves off trees. There seemed to be a storm brewing, not just because of the wind, but because thunder rumbled above me, threatening to rain at any moment.

 

I didn't know where I was, but that time, with my previous knowledge of how the game worked, I began looking for a place to hide out in. Since it was a forest, maybe there was a tree somewhere that was hollow on the inside. That would be a good place to temporarily set up camp and shelter myself from the storm that was surely about to arrive. I was already shivering thanks to the shitty clothes I was given by default, so there was no way I was going to risk braving the storm. 

 

I followed a slight path for a few seconds until, to my right, I heard three voices. All of them were loud and angry-sounding, like they were in the middle of an argument. 

 

I stepped closer to hear them and see who they were. I needed to know if those players were as hostile as Dahyun and Tzuyu were. 

 

I still remembered what Somi had told me about finding a guild. Maybe she had been completely right. The part of this world that I had already seen was huge, and I was sure that that wasn't even a fraction of the entire map. I needed to get Mina soon, before her brain melted, and maybe help would be useful.

 

I was going to follow Somi’s advice, I really was, but once I got really close, I stepped on some leaves that were crunchier than the others. 

 

The voices stopped immediately, remaining completely silent for a couple seconds. I panicked, not moving at all.

 

I decided that I could survive on my own for a bit longer. Last time I tried to make allies, I got an arrow to the knee.

 

_ I gotta level up anyways, or else no one will ever let me join them _ , I reasoned with myself as I darted between trees, turning around every other second to make sure I had avoided being caught. “Gotta find a shelter, then a weapon. Until then, I’ll lay now.”

 

After five minutes or so of nonstop sprinting, I was sure I had lost the group. Not far from where I stopped to catch my breath, I spotted a large clearing in the middle of the forest. I don't know a whole lot about measurements, but it looked to be about the size of an American football field. At the edge of said clearing, near where I was, there was an old shed that looked sturdy enough to keep me safe for the night.

 

The wind picked up a bit, blowing my hair into my face and sending goosebumps down my arms. Despite the worry about losing touch with reality, I was still pleasantly surprised that I could feel things inside there, like the wind tugging on my hair and the grass tickling my legs.

 

Sure, the parts where you can feel an arrow go through your shoulder and feel a giant three-headed beast slam its entire body into you isn't cool, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of gal, so I allowed myself to be impressed by some of the other sensations.

 

I gathered some leaves in hopes that I could use them as a blanket and keep warm if it did indeed rain, planning to take them with me inside the shed I had found. As I was returning to the shed with an armful, the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms straightened, giving me a really, really bad feeling. I looked up to the sky and saw a cloud, much darker than the rest, right above me. It looked menacingly enough to make me decide that I could gather up the leaves later when the skies was calmer. I dropped what I had in my arms and speed walked to the shed. 

 

I felt a shiver run down my body when I was five feet away from my shelter. I looked up again and saw the menacing cloud flash brightly. I had no time to think before lightning struck, heading directly towards me.

 

I knew it was too late to do anything, so I resigned myself to the lightning. In the microsecond I had before it struck me, I prayed that 300 million volts of electricity weren't as painful as they sounded.

 

I was thrown back suddenly, not by lightning, but by a figure thrusting itself violently into me. I landed hard on my back, my head slamming onto the ground and making me pass out for a couple seconds. When I managed to regain consciousness, I was hit with a sudden wall of pain. 

 

I barely noticed, but my mysterious attacker was eating dirt a couple feet away from me, stunned by the lightning that narrowly missed us.

 

I grabbed my head and howled out, feeling like I had just cracked my skull open. I touched the extremely tender part of my head and when I checked for blood, there was indeed a lot of blood coming out of me. I just gripped my head harder, hoping to die a quick death soon and stop this torture. 

 

There was a slight shuffle next to me, so I turned to look at the person that had both just saved my life and made it worse.

 

It was Mina.

 

“MINA!” I screamed, immediately regretting it after my head felt like it was going to implode.

 

“Your head...” She whispered, realizing that my head was bleeding. She opened a small bag that rested on her hip and produced a small vial of green liquid. It looked a lot like the health potions I had found inside of bottles before. 

 

“Drink this before you pass out.” She handed me the vial and I complied, chugging it like my life depended on it, which I guess wasn't very far from the truth. I caught a glimpse of the description the game gave the liquid inside:

 

_ Best when used as a last resort during a battle, this vial completely heals the user and refills their magic. (Recover full HP and MP.) _

 

The second after I drank it felt more like an eternity as I felt no difference in my state. The following second, however, was different. The potion made my insides tingle as if there was an entire colony of ants residing somewhere between my muscles and my skin. After that, my head felt like it was being stitched closed, which was a more welcome sensation than the soul crushing and migraine-like pain I had felt before.

 

I opened my eyes once the potion finished doing it's job and noticed that it was raining. It looked like I had blacked out for a while. Mina was drenched and staring at me intently.

 

“Mina? Is that really you?” I got on my knees and crawled to her, afraid it wasn't actually Mina. I gently grabbed her face and looked into her eyes.

 

“...I saw you. I didn't believe it. My mind couldn't process it; you don't like video games, so I thought I was crazy,” Mina whispered, getting on her knees and hesitantly grabbing my face. “I followed you anyway, watching from afar just in case. I saw the cloud above you… I was so scared, I thought I'd be too late.”

 

I looked into her eyes and rubbed her temple with my thumb. “I'm fine now, Mina. I'm fine, you saved me.”

 

Mina swallowed hard and nodded. “Chaeng… Let's go inside your shed and warm up.”

 

That sounded like a great idea.

 

“Let's do that. I'm freezing in this rain, plus the wind isn't making it any better. Let's hope we can't catch colds in this game.”

 

Mina’s big eyes somehow grew even larger. “Don't tell me that you were affected by the bug too...” She seemed to freeze for a second before slowly turning away and walking towards the shed. I thought she was going to enter the shed once she got to it but she walked past it, deeper into the woods.

 

I wasn't sure why she was so upset, considering it wasn't really her fault at all, but I had to comfort her anyway.

 

I found her about twenty feet away from the shed, staring at the ground and holding her head like she had a headache. 

 

“Mina, hey…” I faced her and pulled her into a tight hug. At first, she gave me no reaction. She just stood and let me embrace her. When I looked up at her eyes, though, she came to and blinked away whatever spell she'd been under.

 

“Minari, are you okay? JYP didn't remove the glitch thing, I guess, or didn't fix it, or whatever you call it. We talked about it before, remember? That night wh-”

 

Mina grabbed me by the front of my shirt and threw me against a tree, causing me to shake it and make all the water droplets resting on it pelt us.

 

I fell to my knees, which gave out. My back was probably broken. I was completely out of breath and extremely confused, as that action had made zero sense.

 

“What the FUCK, Mina? Are you  _ trying  _ to kill me? Did you not understand what I was trying to say? I can feel everything in this game! That includes you tossing me ag-”

 

She spun around and roundhouse kicked my head, knocking me towards a muddy area near us and effectively shutting me up.

 

I couldn't get up, so I settled with opening one eye and looking around, desperately trying to figure out why she had just hurt me twice. She had looked so worried about me only seconds before, what did I do to make her change suddenly?

 

Mina bent over me and stared into my eyes. They were completely blank.

 

“I came in here to keep you from starving. I came here to make sure you stayed healthy, yet you come and put yourself in danger.” She stood and paced the area around me.

 

“Never in a million years did I ever think you'd ever pick up a videogame and join me,” she said, every word in that sentence completely monotone.

 

I tried moving my arm but Mina stepped on it and put her weight on it. Her heel wasn't sharp at all. Her boots had simple flat heels, but the one on my hand was still cutting into my it. She noticed me focus on my hand and I had to watch helplessly as she crushed it harder. 

 

“Get out of the game, Chaeyoung. Go back to the world you're safe in. You don't belong here. Look at you. Still level one.”

 

Mina crouched near me and grabbed my chin. She made me look at her. She looked terrifying now, nothing like the Mina I had seen just minutes before. The empty look in her face was now replaced by an insane, wide-eyed look.

 

“Now look at what level I'm at, Chaeyoung.”

 

Some rain managed to slip through the leaf barrier of the forest and get into my eyes. I tried blinking away the water. I couldn't though, and I shook my head to clear my vision. It seemed to frustrate her. She took a deep breath. “I'm level 99. In only two weeks.”

 

Two weeks? Did she really think it had been that long? Or did time feel different in-game?

 

“M-Mina, it hasn't been two weeks. It's barely been one,” I said all of that quietly, hoping it wouldn't make her angry and make her hurt me more. I didn't think I could stand more than a broken back.

 

“Oh. I see. Oh well, that means I have more time to level up, I guess.” She smiled at me and turned away. “Wanna know how I got to this level?” She asked behind her back.

 

“No, Mina… I don't... Let's go home. I don't care about this stupid game! I'm sick of getting hurt! I only came here to get you out of here.”

 

“But it hasn't been two weeks. Didn't you just say that?” She was still turned away from me. I took the opportunity to grab a nearby tree branch. I masked the sound with my voice.

 

“Yeah, it hasn't, but in the real world, you're in very bad shape. You've lost too much weight to be healthy, and you smell really bad too. I was hoping you could come back and shower, maybe eat a bit, then come back in.”

 

Hoping my back wasn't actually broken, I tried to gather the strength to get up, but it was so hard. The rain made everything ten times harder to do, and now I was the one getting frustrated. 

 

“I don't care. I'm still leaving next week. I wanna get as powerful as I can in this game, and leaving for a little bit is a waste of time.” She paused for a second. “Anyways, even if you don't want to know, I've gotten to level 99 by killing everyone. People want to make alliances and start guilds here, but no one can win when they're burdened by an entire team. So I slaughtered everyone that asked me to join them and got experience for it. I tried tricking someone into being my friend only once, but it was boring. I didn't bother trying to befriend anyone after that. It would take too much time to do it every single time. I'm telling you this to give you an idea of what to do whenever you come across someone. It'll be useful if you want to level up quickly.”

 

What the fuck was wrong with her? She was murdering players in cold blood. “That's… fucked up, Mina. That's what two girls did to me. It hurt like hell, and I think I might be traumatized by that! Mina, listen to yourself! You can get back in later! Your body is a fucking skeleton right now and you need to keep it healthy! And this game is making you crazy. You're turning into a serial killer or something!”

 

Still turned away from me, she sighed. “Chae… Understand that in here, that's how things work. I’m supposed to get stronger one way or another. I wouldn't expect you to know that. You're a noob.”

 

I didn't need to be an expert player to know that was an awful thing to do. Power was getting to Mina’s head. I imagined this was how dictators and evil rulers started out.

 

“I’ve exploited some powerful moves that this game has and they're even better when you execute them as other player’s games lag.”

 

I didn't care. I wouldn't be able to understand her rambling anyway, so instead of listening to her, I focused on my plan.

 

I gripped the tree branch tightly. I needed to knock her out before she hurt me again, and I probably only had one real chance to pull it off. I had to keep the element of surprise on my side. 

 

I struggled to get up, my spine still agonizing after being thrown against a tree. It probably wasn't broken, or else I doubt I could have gotten up, but I'd still need a way to heal quick. If it wasn't a snapped spine that was about to kill me, it was definitely gonna be something else. This game was dangerous and potions were an absolute must at any given moment.

 

Thankfully, the rain masked the sound of my labored breathing and leaves being moved around. When I finally stood up straight, I raised the tree branch and stepped closer to her. 

 

My eyes subconsciously moved to her username and level. 

 

_ BlackSwan, lvl 99 _

 

I wasn't really planning on killing Mina, but it seemed like her nerves hadn't been connected to the game like mine had. If she couldn't feel anything in the game, maybe it was a good idea to just kill her and make her start over somewhere new. I could really use the levels to play comfortably…

 

_ No! What are you thinking,  _ I yelled at myself.  _ You're here to get Mina out, not level up and enjoy the game! Focus, Chaeyoung! _

 

I gently shook my head, getting rid of the intrusive thoughts. I couldn't afford to forget my mission.

 

_ Mina is crazy. You definitely gave her some sort of brain damage, because she's out here killing people.  _ I knew her actions were my fault. She was probably playing normally and working with others until I almost removed her headset. Any slight movement could have made her game mess her head up and turn her into an evil asshole.

 

I focused on the back of Mina’s head. She was still talking, completely unaware of what I was about to do to her.

 

Or, so I thought.

 

Mina turned around exactly when I swung the tree branch and caught it before it could strike her in the head. She sneered at me and twisted her hands, making me lose grip on the branch and basically hand it over to her. 

 

Mina waved the stick at me in a celebratory manner, then dramatically threw the branch in the air. I could only watch like an idiot at what happened next.

 

In mid air, the branch turned into a staff with a glowing purple ball at the top end. It landed perfectly back in Mina’s hand. She extended an arm towards my direction.

 

“By the way, I'm a dark mage in this game. I'm working on my necromancing, wanna see?”

 

I watched in horror as the ground around me began to move around. A skeleton hand popped out and grabbed my ankle. It's grip was tight, but it was only a hand, so I kicked forward and detached the hand from the wrist. That's when another five sets of hands arose from the ground. The hands turned into arms, which were attached to shoulders, which were attached to a whole body…

 

Five skeletons rose from their graves and tackled me. I tried to fight it, but for guys that were all bones and no meat, they sure had some muscle…

 

Mina watched with evil glee as the skeletons pulled me to my knees and held me down. She strode closer and gave me an ugly smirk, one that I'd never seen on her.

 

“I'd order my boys to kill you, but I'm guessing you've never even seen a checkpoint since you've gotten here. You'll just come back over and over again. So instead, I'll help you. Here.”

 

She grabbed one of the skeleton’s ribs and it instantaneously turned into a white knife. It was pretty looking, but when she thrust it into my throat, it didn't seem so pretty anymore. 

 

I gaped at her, somehow still finding it surprising that she would stab me in the neck.

 

Mina didn't pull the knife out of my neck. Instead, she took a step back and looked at me as if she was appraising a work of art. 

 

“Keep it, it's a gift from me. The knife’s name is Neck Stabber. Came up with it myself.” Mina waved her hand over the skeletons and they all turned to dust, finally letting my arms free and letting me grab the knife that was still inside of my neck. I tried pulling it out, but it was like it had sapped all of my energy.

 

Mina kneeled and dug her knee into my chest. “Level up and meet me,” she breathed into my ear. “I'll leave when and  _ only  _ when you become stronger than me and best me in a one-on-one battle.”

 

She stood and walked away from me. From behind her back, she said one last thing. 

 

“Good luck. I love you.”

 

If I had the strength, I would have screamed at her and called her a liar. I probably would have also spat in her direction. But I had no strength. All I could do was try hard to make lasers materialize out of my eyes. It seemed like whatever kind of character I had randomized had no cool powers whatsoever, because nothing at all happened.

 

Mina’s silhouette disappeared into the forest clearing. She left me completely alone in the rain with a blade jabbed into my throat and a broken heart.

 

The stab wound didn't hurt as much as any other injuries I'd acquired in the game. Yet...in another way, it was the most painful one. This one came from someone that I had loved and trusted for years now. It was personal, it was raw and it was killing me equally on the inside and outside.

 

My voice was completely gone. I tried speaking, but all that came out was a disgusting gurgling sound. The rain washed away all of the blood that was pouring out of me.

 

_ Must've lost a lot of blood already,  _ I thought to myself.

 

I set my head back down and spread out my arms, accepting death. 

 

But of course, just when I wanted it, death did not come. It's never that easy in Paracosmos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, I teared up writing this. 
> 
> Anyways, go ahead and yell at me on Twitter under the username @tomodachingus


	6. Level 2.2

“ _Hey, wake up! _”__

____

Had I had fallen asleep? I probably didn't. I most likely passed out from the pain. 

____

The first thing I did was open one eye and look around, wondering who had woken me up and brought me back into a life of torture and sadness.

____

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was surrounded by three beautiful girls. One blonde, one black haired, and the third one had brown hair. All of them seemed worried about me, judging by their expressions. 

____

One of them, the blonde one, had placed my head on her lap as she held a rag against my neck. Was she tending to my wounds? 

____

Admittedly, it was kind of embarrassing to wake up in a strange girl’s lap, but I took a good look at her and she was cute as hell. She was incredibly beautiful, more so than had originally thought. I could imagine a long list of bad ways to find yourself after fainting. This was nowhere near the top.

____

“Rise and shine! I'm user TajongYeon. But, ah, you can call me Jeongyeon. I found you in that forest over there,” the blonde, Jeongyeon, said as she gestured toward the forest behind us, “You were passed out and had a knife in your neck. Hope you're feeling a little better. I used some healing magic on you, but I ran out of MP before finishing, so you're not quite ready to get up and start walking.”

____

It was shocking to hear that she had healed me. I had no idea who she was, but I was extremely grateful that she bothered to do that anyway. I struggled as it was to not faint again because of the pain, so I couldn't imagine how much more pain I was in before being healed. I tried to thank her, but I wasn't sure if I could talk at all.

____

“Don't speak, it's okay,” she said, noticing my internal struggle. She grinned warmly. “Your stab wound might open up or something. It's ok. I'm just gonna introduce my friends, alright? That way we get to know each other from the get-go. I’m sure you're a bit freaked out right now, seeing as you just woke up in a stranger's lap, so I hope getting to at least know our names will help with that.”

____

I nodded, thankful to have finally found people that seemed to be genuinely interested in helping me. 

____

“Ok, so like I said, I'm Jeongyeon! This girl over here, the one with the black hair, that's Nayeon. Her username is bUnnie.” She pointed at the girl and told her to wave. Nayeon waved at me, looking a little awkward, and I waved back just as awkwardly. The awkwardness kind of dissipated when she smiled, as her smile was absolutely adorable. I guessed the username was making a reference to her cute bunny teeth.

____

“And this one right here,” Jeongyeon said, pointing to a cute girl with long brown hair, “is Jihyo. Her username is GodJihyo. She's the leader of our tiny guild.”

____

Jihyo stepped closer to me and waved. The first thing I noticed about her were her eyes. They were so big and brown, absolutely mesmerizing. I was so captivated by them that I almost didn't hear her introduce herself to me.

____

“Hey, Chaeyoungster. This is going to be an offhand question, but I'm assuming you're affected by the bug too? The one that somehow connected our sense of touch to the game?” Jihyo asked, kneeling closer to me. Jeongyeon made a small sound.

____

“Uh, let's not call it a bug. We don't know what it is. All we know is what it does. None of us here have any knowledge in video game programming or developing. I don't want us to look like idiots when it turns out it's not a bug.”

____

Nayeon spoke up. “Point is, it's clearly not just Jihyo and I suffering because of this...phenomenon,” she said, nodding at Jeongyeon, “since Chaeyoungster here looks like she's actually suffering from the stab… That must mean that there are probably a lot of other players in this server that were affected by it too. Therefore, it wasn't anything that we did, which is what we suspected at first.” 

____

I was going to respond but Nayeon jumped to her feet and pointed somewhere over Jeongyeon’s shoulder.

____

“Jeongyeon! Over there! An enemy! Go go! Maybe it'll drop a couple potions and more EXP!”

____

Jeongyeon turned around to look for the enemy and gasped. She quickly but carefully moved my head from her lap and pulled out a sick-looking blade from a small sheath. “Take care of Chaeyoungster, Jihyo,” she ordered, her previously soft expression now replaced with a tough determined one. “We don't want her to die in our care. Nayeon, back me up just in case I lag.”

____

Nayeon ran into a nearby tent and came back out with a crossbow. She loaded it quickly and ran after Jeongyeon, who had already made her way towards whatever enemy they were talking about.

____

Jihyo, probably noting my desire to see what was going on, positioned me in a way that I could watch the scene unfold. I immediately wished she hadn't, as the enemy that they were about to fight was a giant troll-looking thing. It was massive, much taller than any human I had ever seen. It very easily could smash its giant club into either of the two girls and instantly kill them. 

____

“Are they going to be okay?” I asked Jihyo, dreading the outcome of this fight.

____

“Yeah, don't worry, we all chose pretty good combat classes. Jeongyeon is a Ranger, so she's swift and good at melee fighting, and Nayeon is an assassin. She has this perk that lets her land critical hits if she's hidden. Besides, all of us are pretty high level, as you've probably seen. Jeongyeon is level 58, Nayeon is 56, and I'm level 60. They probably won't eve—”

____

“W-wait, back up! What do you mean by ‘class’? What's that?” It was rude of me to interrupt her but I needed to know everything about this game. She took it in stride, though, and calmly explained it all to me.

____

“They're kinda like professions that decide a person’s abilities and fighting style in a game,” she answered, still watching Jeongyeon and Nayeon attempt to take down the giant troll. “You choose the class at the beginning of the game when you customize your character. Jeongyeon chose to be a ranger, which means she can use bows, blades, and sometimes swords. She prefers a blade over a bow, though. Rangers can also be good at using certain types of magic, which is why she was able to heal you.”

____

I slowly started to understand what classes meant. Maybe they were kind of like those geeky Dungeons & Dragons’s classes? Mina had tried to get me to play with her before, but as always, I refused.

____

“Nayeon, as an assassin, can do pretty amazing things. See her over there, hiding in the trees?”

____

I turned to the battle scene and briefly checked on Jeongyeon. She didn't seem tired at all despite running around the giant troll, stabbing and slicing whenever she had an opening. 

____

I looked to the trees but couldn't find Nayeon at all. Was she even there?

____

“I bet you can't find her,” Jihyo interrupted, smiling proudly in Nayeon’s general direction. “That's because assassins are masters of stealth and infiltration. They may not be the strongest class out there, but they make up for it with a variety of skills, like lockpicking, the use of status effects, camouflage… all that cool stuff. She's using her stealth ability right now, which raises the chances of getting a critical hit if the enemy can’t see you.”

____

I didn't know games were so complex and thought out. I had skipped the character customization screen, so I had no idea what class I was and what cool things I could do. Maybe I could ask Jihyo if there was a way for me to find out later, but at that moment, I was curious about her class. She could definitely be something that focuses on healing, since her smile by itself was super powerful, uplifting and wholesome.

____

“What about you, Jihyo? What's your class?”

____

There was a loud roar behind us that kept Jihyo from answering me. We both turned in time to see the troll fall to its knees. It shriveled up and disappeared into nothingness. Jeongyeon howled in delight and ran around in a goofy fashion, like as if she was an ostrich. It was quite a sight to see, considering she had just fought a monster with such a serious expression. Plus she was drenched in troll blood, making the scene more ridiculous that it had been before.

____

“And there,” Jihyo said, rolling her eyes, “is where the ‘Tajo’ in her username comes from. She loves running around like a damn ostrich.”

____

Nayeon seemed to materialize next to Jeongyeon and both began doing an awfully embarrassing dance. Jihyo looked like she was about to disown them.

____

After their mini celebration, they went to the area where the troll died and excitedly searched for any rewards. Their excitement died down pretty quickly, though, as they lifted up the only item that they found in the remains.

____

“It's...another fucking _recorder! _” Nayeon screeched, tossing the instrument across the open field. It landed directly in front of me.__

______ _ _

Jeongyeon jogged up to Jihyo and I with a small smile on her face. “Despite the awful drop, something good came of that fight. I leveled up, so my MP was fully restored! I can heal you completely now!” She placed her hands on my head and pulled up a small menu. After hardly a heartbeat’s worth of time, she was out of the menu and her hand started to glow.

______ _ _

The sensation the healing gave me was that of the potion that Mina had given me, except this time it felt like the ants were inside my neck. It was so uncomfortable that I almost screeched, but I held myself together until the end. 

______ _ _

When Jeongyeon finally finished, the sensation died down and I opened my eyes slowly. The first one to react was Nayeon.

______ _ _

“Chaeyoungster? Are you feeling better?” Her eyes were full of worry.

______ _ _

“Chaeyoung,” I said, my voice finally clear.

______ _ _

“What?” she asked, confused at my response. Jihyo elbowed her.

______ _ _

“That's her name,” Jihyo said, rolling her eyes, “Right?” That last part was directed at me, so I nodded in response.

______ _ _

“Good!” Jeongyeon got up and clapped her hands together. “Let's get moving! We have to find a checkpoint for Chaeyoung! She needs to save her progress just in case, so Jihyo, Nayeon, let's go.” She started walking towards her tent, but Jihyo stopped her.

______ _ _

“Wait,” she whisper-hissed at Jeongyeon, “we don't even know if she wants to join us!” Jihyo turned to me and gave me a shy smile. “I'm so sorry, Jeongyeon loves to jump into things without thinking. Do you wanna join our guild, Chaeyoung? We would love to help you level up and learn new skills. Everything is easier if you do it with a team.” She outstretched her hand and the other two girls followed. 

______ _ _

I stared at the three hands that welcomed me into their group. This was exactly what I needed. People that had the desire to help me get better at this game and improve my chances of doing what Mina required of me before taking her back to the real world: to beat her in a battle. 

______ _ _

My stupid eyes welled up with tears and Nayeon teased me about it. “We’re not asking you to marry us or anything, Chaeyoung! There's no need to cry!”

______ _ _

I laughed through the tears. “You're telling me not to cry but you're already crying too!” I pointed at her watery eyes and laughed louder.

______ _ _

“You guys are weird,” Jeongyeon said, covering her face. “We’re literally just asking Chaeyoung to join the guild and you both start crying randomly… pfft, children.”

______ _ _

Jihyo grabbed Jeongyeon's hands and pulled them away from her face. 

______ _ _

“You're crying too, you hypocrite.” She hugged Jeongyeon tightly, looking like she was fighting tears too. Once she was done comforting Jeongyeon, Jihyo took a deep breath and looked at me. 

______ _ _

“Why did you start crying? You have all of us crying over here for no reason at all.”

______ _ _

Awkwardly, I ran my hand through my hair. “Well… it's a long story, kind of.”

______ _ _

Nayeon patted the seats we’d sat on earlier. “We have time. I mean, no we don't. But I wanna hear your story anyway. What about you guys?”

______ _ _

Jihyo led me to a seat and sat next to me. “I totally do. But first I want to know: do you want to be in 3Mix, our guild? I'd like to know that first.”

______ _ _

I nodded, elated to be in a group of incredibly kind and skillful girls.

______ _ _

“Good! Welcome to 3Mix, Chaeyoung! After your explanation, we’ll officially add you, okay?”

______ _ _

“Sure thing, boss!” I said, making Jihyo blush.

______ _ _

“Gosh, you ladykiller…” she mumbled, looking at Jeongyeon and Nayeon. “Ok, everyone, get comfortable. Let's hear Chaeyoung’s story.”

______ _ _

The three girls waited patiently for me to start, but because their eyes were solely on me, I was self-conscious. I didn't even know where to start.

______ _ _

“Well… I think I'll preface this whole thing with this fact: before entering this entirely new world, I had never really played a video game.”

______ _ _

The other 3Mix members’ mouths all formed an ‘o’ shape. 

______ _ _

“Really?” Nayeon asked, her eyes full of curiosity.

______ _ _

“I mean, I've played Tetris and that weird snake game on Nokias. But besides those, never. Not even those Mario-the-jumping-plumber games. I thought they were stupid and pointless. And I did so until very very recently.

______ _ _

“But my friend… my dear dear friend Mina… she was _obsessed _with video games. She has been, even before I met her in 9th grade. She had so many consoles and so many games. She took me to a convention about a year ago, one that was showcasing Paracosmos. She played the demo and loved it. She bought it once it came out. Problem is, we were broke. Two broke-ass college aged students shouldn't be wasting their money on a console, but she did it anyway and put us at risk. She felt so guilty that she basically trapped herself here. She left me a letter telling me that she was going to stay here for two weeks so that there'd at least be enough money to feed myself. She wanted to play and starve while I thrived. I didn't want her do that. So I came in here, a complete newbie to anything that has to do with videogames, just to rescue her and convince her to return to the real world and eat.”__

________ _ _ _ _

Jeongyeon raised her hand. “Have you found her yet?”

________ _ _ _ _

Jihyo shook her head saying “Probably not. This game’s map is massive. No way she's managed to find _one specific person _in the time since she's been here, which can't be more than a week, since that's how long the game has been out.”__

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Actually,” I said, looking up at the sky in dread, “I did.”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nayeon gasped. “Wait, what? Where?” She leaned forward into her chair, as did the rest of the guild, wanting to hear the rest.

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

I sighed. “She's the one that left me dying in the forest.”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

After the gasps died down, I continued, this time in a quieter voice. 

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

“It was after I died the first time. Two girls, killed me and looted my dead body. After I respawned in the forest, it looked like it was going to rain. I found a shed to hide in, but the storm was getting really bad, so when I was about to enter it, a great big bolt of lightning struck me. Or- well, actually, it would have, if Mina, my friend, hadn't pushed me out of the way—”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Wait,” Jihyo said, confused. “Didn't you just say–”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

“—Trust me, it'll make sense.” I gathered my thoughts and spoke again. “She saved me from the lightning, but once I mentioned that I could feel things inside the game, just like Nayeon and Jihyo… Her entire demeanor changed. She shoved me into a tree with all her might, almost breaking my back. She kicked my head, too. Mina told me to leave and go back to where I ‘belonged’, as in, back to the real world, where I know how to handle myself. I tried telling her to come back with me, but after she stabbed me in the neck, she told me she'd only leave if I did one thing.”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

Jihyo looked like she was about to fall off her chair, she was leaning forward so much. “What was it?”

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

“The one condition was I beat her in a one-on-one battle. I still remember her exact words. _‘I'll leave when and only when you become stronger than me and best me in a one-on-one battle.’ _I… I’m not sure why she wants me to do that. Why beat her? It felt so random, like something she'd never ever do. Nothing makes sense.__

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“The only things I've experienced in this game are pain and confusion. I've died once and almost died many many times in such a short span of time. I'm scarred for life, you guys.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I choked up and the rest of the 3Mix members crowded around me, patiently waiting for me to finish.

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“You guys… you guys are so nice, and even though you just met me, you're asking me to join you and-and… you're willing to teach me how to play this game. That's why I cried. That's why I'm crying right now. Because you guys are so unnecessarily kind to me.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Jeongyeon gave me a teary-eyed smile and ruffled my hair. “You’re so fucking cheesy. What will we do with you? But don't worry, we’ll help you become a great fighter, beat your best friend, and take her back to get some help.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Jihyo pulled me away from Jeongyeon and held my face in her palms. “Don't worry, Chaeyoung. Like Jeong said, we’ll help you. Maybe in the process of teaching you, we can become friends too.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

My tears were flowing like a faucet now. Their kind words were really getting to me. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“I'd like that. I'd like to become friends with people like you.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

*****

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

After our little sob fest, we took some time to compose ourselves before deciding on what to do next. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I noticed that Nayeon had grown uncharacteristically quiet. I didn't think much about it though. I had just met her, after all. Maybe I wasn't aware of the fact that she sometimes needed some time to herself. It was possible. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I planned on dismissing her behavior, as I didn't know her and her personality, but she walked in my direction, looking like she had something to say. She. stopped a couple feet away from me and looked behind her real quick, checking to make sure that Jihyo and Jeongyeon weren't looking. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Listen,” she whispered, looking back at me, “I think I met your friend before. Mina, right?”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I hadn't expected her to talk to me about that. There wasn't anything in particular that I expected, either, but this seemed very out of the blue.

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Yeah, that's her name. Mina.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nayeon nodded. “Follow me. I don't want Jihyo and Jeongyeon to hear this.” She began walking towards the back of the camp but I stopped her.

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Whoa, wait, I'm not sure this is a good idea. I don't want to keep secrets from everyone else. Why can't we talk in front of the rest of the guild?” I really didn't want to lose the trust I had earned so easily. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“Listen, it’s important. It's nothing that will harm them. What I wanna tell you is something pretty humiliating and I would hate for them to hear about it.”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

She sounded sincere, albeit a little sketchy, but I motioned for her to continue anyway. We made our way to a secluded spot that was out of earshot.

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Once we arrived, Nayeon paced around me, looking nervous. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“God this is gonna be so embarrassing. Hopefully this doesn't change the way you think of me,” she said, biting her virtual fingernails. 

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“What is it? Don't worry, if it's nothing that will put us in danger, then your secret is safe with me. Just tell me– when have you met Mina?”

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Nayeon pursed her lips. After giving it some thought, she began her story.

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To celebrate Jihyo's (my bias) Melody Project being released in roughly six hours, here is another chapter. Please support Jihyo's Seranade!


	7. Level 3.2

Nayeon pursed her lips, indecision written all over her face. It caused me to worry about the subject of this secret. 

Her eyes had shined brightly only hours ago, and she had been so smiley, but at that moment, her smile didn't show up once and her eyes looked cloudy, totally unreadable. Plus, if she felt like she couldn't tell her own best friends about this, then clearly something awful had occurred.

“Okay, before I begin,” Nayeon said, interrupting my thoughts, “I have a question for you: do you know what grinding is?”

I shook my head. “Like...the dancing kind? When you basically rub yourself against someone?”

Nayeon made a face. “No… what the hell, man, I meant grinding in a videogame!”

I raised my arms in defense. “Alright, alright, tell me what grinding is!”

“Jeez, Chaeyoung… Grinding is like when you do something over and over in a videogame so that your character can level up bit by bit. That way you can unlock newer content and stuff like that. Not too long ago, Jeongyeon, Jihyo and I were very low level, so we planned on fighting waves of enemies inside a broken and abandoned castle, hoping to gain EXP that way. We were gonna do that repeatedly, just hack and slash away until we got to level 20.”

“Ah! Okay, I get that… Why did you ask, though?”

Nayeon paused and rubbed her chin.

“Something happened in that crumbling castle…”

*****

_We got separated after a horde of skeletons suddenly attacked us. I tried pushing them away, shouting for Jihyo, but soon I found myself in the west wing of the castle. I called out for both of the girls, but I never got a reply._

_I was frustrated and scared, but mostly frustrated. Skeletons weren't strong enough to separate three higher level players. It seemed very... off._

_I tried to find my way back by retracing my steps, but I felt more lost than I had before. All the hallways looked the same to me. My heart kept beating faster and faster. I felt like I was going to pass out. I felt so alone._

_Being an assassin in such small and cramped hallways was terrifying. Jeongyeon was always the one leading the way when it came to walking in narrow areas, as her skills as a ranger were more useful in that situation. A crossbow is too much of a hassle to hide and pull out often. I regretted not choosing a dagger to fight with._

_I fought a small horde of skeletons with my bulky crossbow and after defeating them, I expected them to fade away and leave some drops. But they didn't. Their remains stayed there, and I was given the prompt to loot their bones. That was weird, since AI enemies always turn to dust and leave behind orbs of EXP and maybe some leveled items._

_I looted them and found that they had some weird items. Stuff that I had previously only found in the bodies of summoned creatures, like demons._

_Only enemies summoned by players have cool alchemy ingredients like those that these skeletons had._

_I didn't think much of it, though. I was too paranoid about getting ambushed by stronger enemies to focus on a small detail like that. I let myself believe that I was just wrong about the behavior of defeated enemies._

_I only started getting really suspicious when the only type of enemy attacking me was the skeleton. Tons and tons, just rushing towards me with their clubs raised._

_At one point, I was jumped by 10 of those bony jerks as I was checking this treasure chest I had spotted. I was sure that that would be the end of me, that I was going to die a really painful death. I mean, they caught me by surprise and I didn't have my crossbow loaded, nor could I load it in time._

_I killed maybe one of them by kicking them over, but since they caught me off guard, the others overwhelmed me quickly. They drove me into a corner and, as you know, I can feel everything that happens to me in this game, just like you, so I felt every battle axe strike and slice my chest, every spear penetrate my skin._

_I thought I was done for. I couldn't defend myself, so I assumed I'd be dead within a minute. Then… the pain stopped. I looked up and saw a pretty girl fighting off the skeletons, kicking them and blasting them with her magic staff. When she finished killing off the horde, she came to me and asked if I needed healing, or if I had my own potions._

_I didn't have anything on me, so I asked her to heal me. She waved her staff around and did exactly that._

_I immediately asked her for her name. She told me her name was Mina. She asked me for my name as well._

_I introduced myself and thanked her for saving me. She admitted that it wasn't her intention to save me; she hadn't even seen me! She was just grinding, the same as 3Mix had been doing, and she had spotted the chest I had gone through earlier and decided to risk fighting the skeletons._

_I decided to repay her for her trouble. I took out the rare item I’d found inside the chest and offered it to her. She shook her head and refused to receive compensation for her good deed. After a minute of insisting and failing to get her to accept my offering, I asked her if she had seen two other girls around. I explained my situation to her but to my dismay, she hadn't seen either of my friends._

_She did ask me if I wanted to join her on the quest that had led her there, though, telling me that if we worked together we could defeat any enemies and maybe find my friends along the way. That convinced me to join her. I really didn't want to be alone._

_As we walked around the hallways, wary of any skeletons, I noticed that the girl, Mina, was seriously pretty. Even with her back turned to me, I felt attracted to her. Her dark hair looked great in the low lighting; her armor accentuated areas of her body that, almost like a magnet, attracted the eyes._

*****

I rolled my eyes. “Are you going to tell me about all the sexual fantasies you had about her?”

Nayeon frowned. “It's important to the story.”

“How is that important? If you happened to meet the same Mina that I know, then I'm listening to you talk about the curves of my best friend. I really don't want to hear any of that, thank you very much.”

Nayeon narrowed her eyes. “Why not? You don't know if this is crucial information or not.”

“I doubt it's imperative for me to know that you thought she was hot.” I crossed my arms across my chest and avoided looking at her. The last thing I wanted was for her to see how jealous I was getting. 

Nayeon stepped into my view.

“You like her, don't you?” She stared at me intently, making me very self-conscious.

“It's okay. I get it. You're in love with your best friend. It happens.” She mirrored my stance and crossed her arms as well. “But I swear there's a reason I'm telling you this. Let me continue, please.”

I wasn't going to mention the accuracy of her first statement, so I swallowed away any bitterness and breathed in deeply. “Yeah, okay, continue.”

Nayeon nodded.

*****

_She was crazy good looking. It felt like every step we took, I fell more for her. It was strange. It felt like I was under some sort of spell._

_The only time I wasn't totally focused on her was when we encountered skeletons. There were so many that I started to get suspicious. As I fought them, I couldn't help but think that maybe they were being summoned by a powerful necromancer. They clearly had enough magic points, MP, to continuously summon tons of them._

_During one of the more peaceful moments, I asked Mina if she knew what was going on. I mentioned the evidence I had gathered: the bodies not disintegrating, the items found in the corpses, the massive amounts of skeletons that we encountered._

_For a second a flicker of worry took over her face, but that went away as quickly as it had appeared._

_She told me that it was probably just in my head, that enemies sometimes did that. She didn't have an explanation as to why, though, so the doubts in my head didn't go away._

_I’m not completely sure how long we explored the castle, but eventually Mina suggested we sit down and check her map to see if we had made any progress in the quest._

_We hunkered down in a corner and checked her quest log. She was concentrated on the menu, but I was concentrated on her. My heart wouldn't keep still. I think it was like love at first sight. Every little gesture and facial expression of hers made my heart flutter._

_It got to the point where she noticed my staring._

_She asked me if something was wrong. I shook my head and half-ashamedly I told her that she was freakishly hot. Her facial expression became unreadable, and I was worried that I had been too forward. My worried died down when she giggled and thanked me. She told me I was cute and—_

*****

“ _Enough_ , Nayeon.”

She stopped mid sentence and gave me a confused look. “What?”

I shook my head. “What is the point of this? Why are you telling me this? This sounds like a badly written movie.”

Nayeon frowned and grabbed my hands. She continued her story as I tried to escape from her grasp.

“When she called my cute, my heart lurched! I found myself leaning closer to her until our lips touched.”

My heart lurched too, but not the same way Nayeon’s had. I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to know what happened next. 

“Maybe I shouldn't have kissed her without consent. I admit, it's pretty weird to kiss a girl you'd just met an hour ago. But it seemed like she didn't mind.”

“Please, stop, I don't want to know, Nayeon.” I couldn't get away from her. Her grip was tight. “I don't see the point of your story. Are you making fun of me for having a crush on my best friend? Did I do something to you that made you feel like you should exact revenge like this?”

Nayeon frowned. “No. I'm not going this to hurt you. Listen to me. Don't make this a bigger deal than it actually is. We are not in a drama. Think straight, Chaeyoung.”

I did think about it for a second and let her finish her story. She was right. I had to think rationally and not make everything harder. She had no reason to want to hurt my feelings like this. 

“Like I was saying… She kissed me back. I leaned in more and dug my hands into her hair, feeling how silky it was. She seemed to like that, so I kissed her a little more roughly.”

My heart rotted more and more with each word that escaped her lips. 

“That's...when a skeleton came in.”

I had my head down, but at that I bolted straight up to look at Nayeon. 

“I caught it sneaking up on us while we were kissing. I pulled away from her and reached for my crossbow, but was startled by Mina screaming at the skeleton. The skeleton froze and fell apart when she screeched about ‘not summoning it yet.’ She said that right in front of me.”

Nayeon sighed. She scratched her head and looked at me apologetically.

“She was the necromancer. I pushed her away from me and asked her what was happening. She stared at the floor, breathing heavily. I'm not sure if that was because we had been making out or if it was because I had caught her admitting that she was the reason there were so many skeletons.”

“What did she say?” I wanted to know what happened. The Mina that Nayeon met was also a necromancer, so it was evident she had met my Mina, and I needed to know what it was that she had done to Nayeon.

“She didn't say anything. It was like time froze. She wiped her lips and shook her head, as if it was hard to believe that her cover had been blown. I asked her why she had done that, why she raised skeletons and attacked them like as if she was an innocent adventurer defending herself. She finally reacted and told me to shut up, then raised her staff and blasted me with some lightning. I hit a wall and slumped to the floor. Mina inched toward me, her face completely blank. She closed the distance between our faces and out of the blue she kissed me, and it was a long kiss, the kind that leaves you breathless. It was kind of romantic…”

“Nayeon, she had just blasted you with lightning. How is that romantic..?”

Nayeon blushed and turned away dramatically. “Forget it. But after she kissed me, she put one end of her staff of my chest and shoved it deep inside of me. Let me tell you, it's one thing to be penetrated by a sharp weapon, and it's another thing to be penetrated by a blunt one. Her staff wasn't meant to stab. It's just a stick with an orb on one end. It made me howl like _crazy_.”

Nayeon ended her story with a few final words.

“I can tell by your face that this was your Mina that I met. I don't know what happened to her to have made her change so dramatically, but… you've got the three of us, Jihyo, Jeongyeon and I, to help you. She's crazy strong, and we both know that, so you're going to need a lot of help.”

I nodded, once again thankful that I had come across such kind people. Who else would be so willing to help a virtual stranger? 

“So did Mina leave you like that, with a giant hole in your chest?” I asked, curious as to how she was reunited with the rest of 3Mix.

“She sure did, in more ways than one... Jeongyeon and Jihyo found me about thirty minutes later. Jihyo screamed and gave me almost every potion she had until I regained all of my HP. They asked me what had happened, begged me to tell them who did that to me but I– I couldn't tell them. So I would really appreciate it if you kept this a secret as well.”

I crossed my arms and stared at her for a good ten seconds. “Why do you want to keep this a secret? This could have happened to anyone, Nayeon. I'm sure they'll understand completely.”

“No, they won't. Trust me on this.” Nayeon shook her head, adamant about her decision to remain quiet.

“Tell me why you can't tell them.”

Nayeon huffed and looked at me awkwardly. “This is gonna sound a little weird… I don't know how you'll react.”

“God, Nayeon, what could it possibly be? I'm sure you're just making a big deal out of it. C’mon, spill!”

She leaned against a wall and looked dramatically to the side. “Jeongyeon, Jihyo and I are… dating.”

I'm sure my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline.

“We’re in a polyamorous relationship. I know it sounds weird, I promise it's—”

“—It's not by business, Nayeon, don’t worry. I was just surprised. You three definitely have a gay vibe about you.”

Nayeon didn't look very convinced, so I made eye contact with her, assuring her that I wasn't reacting negatively to her news.

“I actually think it's very nice that you guys did that. It eliminates feelings of competition between you guys.”

Nayeon nodded and said “Yeah. We went to high school together and found out we all were in love with each other. We didn't really do anything about it until two years ago, when we decided to be in this kind of relationship. So, please… don't tell them. I– I know I technically cheated on them. Please, please, it'll break their hearts.” 

“Nayeon, listen. I’ll keep this a secret,” I began, watching her defeated expression turn into a hopeful one. “But– you have to tell them about this yourself. You won't be able to keep this quiet for long. Something will happen and they will find out, and if it doesn't come directly from you, then it's gonna hurt them a lot more. It's best you don't wait this out; go and tell them the truth.”

Nayeon kicked a nearby tree. She seemed to think about it, which was good, since I strongly believed that Jihyo and Jeongyeon deserved to know what happened.

“Plus,” I added, “they really love you. I can see it. If you tell them the whole truth, nothing held back, then I'm sure they'll understand.”

“But what if they don't?” Nayeon asked with extremely wide eyes.

“If they don't, then that's on you. They do have the right to be hurt by your actions.”

Nayeon nodded. “Dammit. I really hate myself right now. But you're right. I have to tell them. If they get mad, it's all my fault.”

I smiled at her, proud of the decision she made. Maybe, just maybe, I could also help 3Mix grow and be better. It was the least I could do for all the kind things they've done for me.

*****

Back at the camp, Nayeon tentatively approached her two girlfriends and lightly grabbed their shoulders. She seemed to whisper something to them, which made Jihyo put on a worried face. It looked like Nayeon comforted her, probably promising that everything would be okay.

Jeongyeon turned to me and mouthed the words _We’ll be right back_. I nodded in response, giving them two thumbs up to show them that I would be okay with being by myself for a couple minutes.

They stepped away and headed to where Nayeon and I had had our own secret meeting. 

After a few minutes, I began to get restless. I was glad that they were talking about such a touchy subject, but I was also tired of sitting down. I resorted to walking around the camp, keeping away from where the other members were.

Out of nowhere, I remembered the recorder that Nayeon had found and tossed towards me earlier that day. I ran around looking for it in the tall grass until I finally spotted it. I lifted it into the night air and saw that it wasn't a recorder; it was a flute! It was also no ordinary flute, as the instrument in my hands was a pan flute. 

How Nayeon could have possibly confused a recorder and a pan flute was beyond me.

I checked it all over, seeing if it had taken any damage at all. It didn't even have one scratch on it, so I cleaned the lip piece and planned on playing it until I heard something that made the hairs on my neck stand up straight.

It was an earth-shaking _SLAP_!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all those that have left comments and kudos~ I really, truly and wholeheartedly appreciate them!


	8. Level 4

We all went to sleep after Jihyo slapped Nayeon and stormed off. Jeongyeon said it was better to let her cool off and put everything on hold until morning. Before sleeping, though, Jeongyeon told me about what she planned on doing the next day.

We were going to the mountain that we could see from our camp. She told me there was a specific town at the peak that some players had promised to be the best area to train. 

Jeongyeon wanted me to teach me about navigating the menus while we made our way there, too, using all the time we had effectively. She learned that I only knew the basic controls, so she planned on showing me some moves as well. All of this would benefit me in my final battle with Mina.

She dismissed herself and entered the tent she was going to share with Jihyo. I was put in a separate tent with Nayeon but hardly slept at all; she kept crying and complaining that it wasn't fair that she had to sleep in a different tent. She really wanted to apologize to Jihyo and make up with her, but the girl in question wanted absolutely nothing to do with Nayeon, at least for the night.

I gave up trying to sleep when I saw the sun begin to peek through the horizon. I left a whining Nayeon by herself and sat on the grass. I watched the sun slowly rise, glad it remained a unique and breathtaking experience, even if it was within a game. It was crazy to see that the developers of the game could almost flawlessly recreate such a marvelous event. 

“Hey,” someone said behind me. I turned to see that it was a barely-awake Jeongyeon. 

“Oh, hey, good morning. Why are you up so early?”

“I usually wake up before everyone else,” she said, fighting a yawn. “You sleep well? Or nah?”

“Nah. Nayeon cried too much for me to rest. I decided the morning would be better spent watching the sunrise.”

Jeongyeon sat down next to me. “Sorry about that. Nayeon looks like she's tough, but she needs constant attention from us. This must've hurt her a lot, but you know how it is. Jihyo took it the hardest out of the two of us. I had to talk her out of breaking up with Nayeon because I didn't want to end it with her, so she decided to stay in the relationship and make Nayeon make up for it somehow. Maybe… maybe it’s not really all that healthy for me to force Jihyo to continue dating Nayeon, but I love both of them and I told her that it would just make things awkward if we all weren't together.”

Scratching her head, she changed the subject.

“Y’know, I really thought it would be too hard to accurately capture the reds, oranges and yellows of the sunrise but I was wrong. Technology has gotten so advanced that it's almost impossible for me to differentiate between the real world sunrise and this in-game one.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding solemnly. “Kinda scary, kinda cool, huh?”

“Well, it's more cool than anything. At least, to me. Then again, I guess I'm enjoying things more because I don't feel the things that happen to me in the game. It's just you three.” Jeongyeon patted my leg, I guess trying to comfort me as much as she could. “You guys don't really have time to look up at the sky and appreciate everything when you're looking down at the ground, constantly on the lookout for things that can hurt you.”

“Yeah. Gotta survive and all that.”

Jeongyeon nodded. “Indeed. Anyway, I should go wake the other two. We have a mountain to climb, so it’s better we get going now so we reach the peak ASAP.”

She excused herself and left. I began to gather all of my guild’s things, helping them pack since I owned nothing but the clothes on my back and the pan flute from the previous day.

While I sorted everything, Jihyo managed to sneak up behind me, so when I turned around to check out what the shuffling was, I was stunned to see her directly behind me.

“Holy shit, Jihyo!” was all I could muster. Of course I was spooked because I hadn’t expected to see her, but she was also wearing a set of heavy-looking armor.

She grinned at me and did a quick spin to show me all of her outfit.

“I figured you'd be surprised, which is why I snuck up on you. Yesterday you asked me what my class was but I didn't get to tell you. Well, here's your answer!”

She looked like she expected me to know what it was, but her armor hinted at absolutely nothing. 

She clicked her tongue. “I forgot you don't know much. My bad. Uh, I'm a warlord. Do you know what those are?”

I shook my head, still trying to wrap my head around Jihyo looking like a badass, which was not what I had expected at all. I thought she'd be a cute-fairy-healing kind of player. Not...whatever a warlord was.

“Warlords are, in other words, generals or commanders that excel in up-close combat, planning out battle tactics and strategies, _and_ buffing the soldiers they're in charge of.”

“Oh,” I whispered, imagining Jihyo leading a giant army into battle and cheering them on. “So, wait, I don't think I fully understand your class. What's ‘buffing’?”

Nayeon appeared out of nowhere and answered my question. “It's a perk that many classes have where they can temporarily boost an ally in one way or another. For example, Jihyo can automatically emit an aura that regenerates our health, but only during a fight. It's pretty cool.”

Thankful for the explanation, I turned to Jihyo for confirmation that the info was true. 

Jihyo had put on a neutral expression and turned her back on Nayeon, making it clear she was still not over her betrayal. 

Jeongyeon cleared her throat and shouldered a bag. “Let's get going, yeah? We don't have time to fight amongst each other right now. We have to go and help Chaeyoung level up. Thanks for explaining to her what a warlord is, Nayeon. And Jihyo, don't ignore Nayeon. She's the one we have to consult when we check the map, since she’s got more sections of it than the two of us combined, and ignoring her will only complicate things.”

After closing her eyes and probably talking herself out of punching Jeongyeon, Jihyo stiffly approached Nayeon and, with a plastic smile, asked her to pull out her map and tell us in which direction we should start walking.

Nayeon seemed to be satisfied with this, as she grinned and did what Jihyo asked. She oriented herself according to the compass in her hand and pointed a bit to the east. “That way is where the footpath we’re going to take is at. It starts at the base of the mountain, on the side that's facing us, and it's going to go all around the mountain. It’s not a very tall one, so this trip can't possibly take longer than a day or so.”

Jeongyeon motioned for Jihyo to walk ahead of us, as she was the leader of the guild, and we set off.

“So,” I began, “why does Nayeon have more of the map than everyone else? I imagine that to obtain more areas of the map, you have to walk around and discover them. That part’s pretty obvious. I just think it’s kinda weird that she’s explored more of the world than you guys.”

Jeongyeon pursed her lips.

“Ah, well, I’m sure you know that when a player dies, they respawn in an entirely new and random area of Mwong-Mi. That's the name of the fictional continent within the game, just in case you didn't know.”

I walked in silence for a bit. This was new information for me. “I...honestly didn't even know that this place had a name. Mwong-Mi, was it?”

Jeongyeon nodded and continued. “Well, Nayeon has died once. It was seriously one of the most gruesome deaths I’ve seen in this game so far. We had just started playing when it happened. We stupidly decided to explore a cave that we knew was beyond our level. She fell into a trap that smashed her head and crushed her body.”

Next to me, Nayeon shivered. 

“She died, obviously, and spawned in a _completely_ new area.. She had to travel through desert and rainforest biomes just to be able to find us again. We were lucky enough to find each other at all, and quickly at that. It took only three days to meet up again. That's how she got a lot of the map. I'd say she has about 40% of the map right now, while Jihyo and I have less than 10%.”

I stared at Nayeon, both horrified and impressed by the story. 

Nayeon grinned and shrugged, obviously loving the attention. “I mean… It was pretty awful, since I didn't know much about the game. I had just started it, so I had to adapt to the new controls and everything just to be able to survive. The whole ‘being able to feel everything in the game’ thing made it worse since I got into a lot of fights with enemies. I would go to sleep beaten and bruised every night.”

“Wooow,” I said, comparing her experiences with mine. I was thrown into a whole new world with absolutely no knowledge of how it worked. I found myself sympathizing with her, since I had a pretty good idea of what she felt like during those moments.

Nayeon quickly checked her map to make sure we were still on track. “Mmm but what you've been through is worse. At least it wasn't that hard for me to learn the new controls. They're usually similar throughout most games. _X_ to interact, _Start_ to pause, _R1_ to attack and so on, with small differences every now and then. But you've never played a game. You had to start from zero.” Nayeon shook her head.

“If I were you, I would have died more than just once. You're a badass, Chaeyoung.”

I looked at Jihyo and Jeongyeon. They both nodded. It made my heart melt a little. It was nice to be praised for something that I had zero confidence in.

“You've got the potential to be one of the best players in this guild,” Jeongyeon said. “If you're this good at surviving with barely any knowledge of how this game works, then I bet you're gonna be a pro gamer once you get the hang of everything.”

“You think so?” 

“I totally do. So let's get to training you so you can kick some ass.”

I felt a surge of confidence. Surely they weren't just giving me empty praises. Maybe I could really meet– or even exceed– their expectations.

*****

For the next hour, Jeongyeon walked along with me and taught me how to use every menu in the game. I learned that there were separate pages for magic spells, armor, special moves and quests. She taught me how to switch between them seamlessly. If I ever got into a battle, this would come in handy. Entering a menu did not pause the game so knowing my way through them all would allow me to do what I needed and get back to focusing on the battle.

“Okay, so, let's say you're fighting an enemy.” Jeongyeon pulled out a knife and pointed it at me. “You're hurt, and you need to choose a healing spell. Now, since spells aren't a physical thing, you can't just pull them out from your backpack, like you can with potions. You have to manually choose them in the _Spells_ menu. That's gonna take some time to do. If you're in the middle of fighting a huge snake and you're hurt and you _need_ healing, you can’t waste any time. Knowing how to navigate the menus will help make this no big deal. If you're in and out in no time, you have an advantage over the AI enemies and possibly other players that can't do that.”

I rubbed my chin. This seemed like such a pointless skill to have at first, but when she explained it to me, I could see how mastering it could be rewarding.

Jeongyeon stopped walking. Jihyo and Nayeon did the same, but Jungyeon waved them away. 

“Keep walking, it's ok. I'm just going to make sure Chaeyoung memorized what I taught her! We’ll catch up soon!”

Jihyo didn't look sure about it, but waved it off anyway. Nayeon just followed her like a puppy.

Jeongyeon grinned at me. It made me uneasy. Something bad was about to happen, I could feel it. A smile like that could only mean she was about to wreck me.

“Wh-what's with that grin..? What are you planning?”

“I'm going to need you to lose some health points, or HP, to see if you really did pay attention.”

“ _What?_ Lose HP? Are you crazy? I'm trying to _keep_ my HP, thank you very much. I'd rather not get hurt at all. Isn't there another way to test me? Like, for example, simply asking me to quickly switch between menus on command?”

Jeongyeon shook her head, her grin slowly fading. “I don't want to hurt you, but I wanna see how quick you can find the inventory menu and heal yourself with the basic healing spell everyone is given at the start of the game.”

I wanted to fight it, but it's not like Jeongyeon was going to make me lose all 50 of my health points. She'd probably just hurt me enough to take 5 of those away…

“Turn around,” Jeongyeon said, making a spinning motion with her fingers. “I don't want to look at you when I do it, or else I'll feel too guilty.”

“Ah… okay, I guess.” I turned around and tightly shut my eyes. 

“I'm gonna throw a small rock at your head. So expect that, ok? Then when you take the damage, quickly restore them, yeah?”

Nodding, I gave her a thumbs up. I braced myself for the sting.

_WHACK!_

I felt Jeongyeon's rock hit my shoulder. It hurt more than I expected and I fell to the ground, still feeling the rock. It felt like it was stuck there. Did Jeongyeon seriously throw it hard enough to do that?

“Dammit, Jeongyeon, I thought you were going to throw it softly!”

I looked up at my HP and was horrified to see that I had lost more than half of it. I was now at 20 HP.

I heard a scream behind me. I turned to see an arrow sticking out of Jeongyeon's stomach.

I reached for the rock in my shoulder and found that it was not a rock, but an arrow as well. Confused, I looked at Jeongyeon. She was bleeding like crazy, but she was pulling up the spells menu as calmly as she could.

A second arrow whizzed past and struck Jeongyeon’s hand. 

She screeched and doubled over, clutching her bleeding hand.

I looked everywhere around me. I needed to find where the threat was coming from. I didn't know what I was going to do once I found them, but I'd take it one step at a time. First I needed to spot them.

My shoulder throbbed as I searched the area around us. It was useless, though, as there was nothing to hide behind for miles. No trees, bushes or rocks to find cover and shoot arrows from.

“Nayeon! Jihyo!” I shouted, hoping they hadn’t gotten too far. “Help! Jeongyeon is bleeding!”

Jeongyeon coughed up blood and shook her head. “N-no, I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound…”

“Jeong, you and I _both_ know that that arrow pierced more than just your flesh!” I couldn’t believe this chick was trying to convince me that she was okay when her own eyes betrayed her. The fear in her eyes was proof enough that she had been caught completely off guard and was in more pain than she let on.

Jeongyeon shouted in frustration. “Find the spell and heal yourself,” she said, getting up and wildly searching for the enemy. 

I did as I was told and slowly restored all of my HP. 

It was a little suspicious that they had shot three arrows and stopped. They could have easily continue to bombard us with arrows while we were completely helpless. But they did not, and it gave me an unsettling feeling. If they ran out of arrows, that could mean that they were preparing to fight us with something else. 

Maybe if the attacker hadn’t started giggling like a maniac I would never have found her.

She sounded pretty far away but her laughter was so loud that it sounded like she was Jeongyeon’s distance away from me, about one arm’s length.

I pulled the arrow out of my shoulder and had to heal myself once more because of it. Jeongyeon did the same with those that were in her hand and stomach. She cried a bit but she held her screams in and healed herself as well. She took a second to breathe, then, silently, asked me where the giggling was coming from.

I pointed in the direction of the sound. The attacker hadn’t gotten over her laughing fit, so we decided to take advantage of it. We snuck our way to her, surprised to see that she had actually been 90 yards away from us. Was her laugh really that loud?

Once we reached her hiding spot, we noticed she had used a small patch of tallish grass to hide in. She had camouflaged well into her surroundings, too, using some blind grass to hide under just in case. 

She was rolling around on the ground, holding her stomach as she tried to stop laughing. Jeongyeon carefully pulled out her blade and knelt, planning on getting her while she was distracted.

She stopped, though, when we heard the sound of a bowstring being pulled.

“Gotcha,” a second person whispered behind us.

Jeongyeon and I both reflexively raised our hands in surrender. I turned around and saw that it was a girl as well. She had an intense look on her face, one that told me that any little movement I made would turn me into a shish-kebab in less than a second.

“Hi,” I said, smiling nervously at her. Jeongyeon stared at me, giving me a _shut up, you'll get us killed!_ look. I ignored it and continued talking to the girl with the bow.

“Listen, this was probably set up as a trap. And let me tell you, this was a _nice_ trap. I can't wait to tell people about it. I'll be like ’I got trapped, I got trapped, woo!’ because this was planned out so well!”

The girl narrowed her eyes and slightly lowered her weapon. 

I took this as a sign to keep talking.

“I mean, it was genius. Shoot us while we were not expecting an ambush, and if we’re not mortally wounded by that, lure us closer by laughing. Then when we think we’re safe and that we have the upper hand, whoosh in and get us from behind.” I kissed my fingers like a French cook. “Excellent! Never been so delighted to be tricked like this!”

The girl, who's username was DancingMomochine, snorted in derision. “Her laughing wasn't part of the plan. I had to improvise.”

The girl behind us whined. “I'm sorry, Momo… It was just seriously funny to see them looking around trying to find me. They looked ridiculous. I laughed harder when I remembered that they wouldn't find me because I was wearing camo.” 

She looked at us and lowered her eyes. “Or, at least, I thought they wouldn't. I honestly didn't know I was laughing so hard.”

The second girl, Momo, huffed and ran a hand through her hair. “They did look pretty stupid…”

Jeongyeon cleared her throat. “Listen, I understand that she ruined your plan and all, but what are you going to do with us? You've got us under your thumb, so we’ll do whatever you want.”

Momo raised an eyebrow. “Sana, what should we make them do?”

Sana, or NoSanaNoLife as her username said, got up and stood next to her friend.

“Let's make them take us to their camp. We can take all of their stuff there. We’re low on gold right now, so we can sell what they give us.” Sana winked at me and added, “We can take their clothes and weapons too. Totally defenseless.”

My jaw dropped. I thought this girl was an idiot, since she gave herself away by laughing, but it seemed like I was wrong. 

Momo rubbed her chin. “I like that plan. Then it would be three successful camp raids. Let's do that.”

Sana clapped and giggled. “Good! Let's buy more potions with the gold we get!”

Jeongyeon swallowed hard. “W-we don't have a camp, sorry guys. We’re just traveling.”

Absentmindedly, I said “Yeah. We’re traveling right now, so our friends are up ahead.”

Jeongyeon elbowed me really hard and forced a small laugh. “Don't listen to her. She's new to this game and she tends to think of the in-game villagers as friends. What a weirdo, right?”

“Actually,” Sana said, looking at her fingernails, “the short one is right, Momo. I saw them with two other people at first, but it looks like they stopped for a second and split into two groups. The others are a little ahead, maybe a mile or so by now. They look like they're heading for the mountain.”

Momo took the information in. “Okay. Should we just jack the stuff these two have or make them lead us to their friends and take all of it?”

Jeongyeon stood up and pulled out her knife, pointing it at Momo. “I'm not going to lead you to anyone,” she said in a husky voice.

Momo pulled up her bow and pointed it at my friend. “Yes you are. I'm a Level 40 Ranger, specializing in bows. I have the Knockback perk, so one hit and you're sent flying. I can lower your health with a second and third arrow, and kill you with a fourth. It wouldn't be hard. It looks like you're a level 59 Ranger. A nice level, but I see you have a blade. You're not close enough for melee combat. You'd need to run at lightning speed, which you probably do have, but you also need enough force behind your stab to do significant damage.”

My jaw dropped again. She knew all that from one glance? She could have been bluffing about the strength of her shots, but there was a chance it was all true. Jeongyeon knew this, since she lowered her blade and scowled at her. 

Sana raised her own bow and aimed it at me. “And you're extremely low level. Look, Momo, she's level 1. They're no threat.”

Using her bow, Momo motioned for us to start walking. “Let’s go. No tricks, or you're both getting one to the head.”

Jeongyeon looked like she planned on leading them the wrong way, but both of us knew it would be better to do as we were told. We’d figure out what to do once the time came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chapter for a while, guys! I'm currently writing a 2yeon fic and I wanna focus on it a bit! Don't worry tho it won't be long!


End file.
